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Attorney
By
Attorney
Career Profiles of the Profession
Who?
What?
Primary Practice Area & Subspecialty Fields:
Mediation and Arbitration.
When?
Years in Practice Area:
Since 1975
Years in the Legal Profession:
Since 1975
Where?
Employer:
Mark L. Irvings, Esq.
City/State:
Brookline, MA 02446
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Law School:
Northeastern University School of Law
Undergraduate School/Degree:
Harvard College, BA in Economics
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Why?
Pluses/Challenges of Practice Area:
Advocate and facilitate solutions to problems, instead of merely a client’s position; Set my own schedule and make decisions on tradeoffs of time and money without having to answer to others in a firm; Keep abreast of current issues in employment, labor, and commercial law; Challenge of managing a mixed mediation/arbitration caseload.
Core Skills/Key Knowledge Needed in Your Practice Area:
Sophisticated dispute resolution skills, substantive expertise in a number of areas of law, confidence to be able to function as a neutral, and to exist with a high degree of uncertainty and lack of security.
Advice to Lawyers and Law Students Interested in Your Practice Area:
You must have substantive expertise in an area before people will trust you to decide their disputes, and before you will have credibility as a mediator. You must also have the skills of a neutral, and be perceived as such. It is very difficult to get the substantive knowledge and avoid the stigma of partial advocacy. Working in an administrative agency is one method to achieve both goals, also teaching. There is no easy way to develop an ADR practice, which is why so few people do it full-time.
How?
Career Path to Current Position:
BA in Economics from Harvard, internship in state board of mediation and arbitration, work as a community organizer which taught negotiating skills, extensive training in mediation and arbitration, consultant to American Arbitration Association developing pioneering ADR programs in courts and institutions, use of cooperative education jobs in law school to develop expertise and contacts among plaintiff/union and defendant/management firms, mentored by highly regarded arbitrator. Former modest life style and willingness to take risks enabled me to begin ADR practice right out of law school.
Influences and Mentors:
William Lincoln, Mediator, and William Fallon, Arbitrator.
Bar Affiliations and Activities:
ABA Labor and Employment Law Section; neutral co-chair of Ethics Committee of Subsection on ADR in Employment and Labor Law; Massachusetts Bar Association; National Academy of Arbitrators.
Recent Professional Presentations:
Ethical Issues in ADR at ABA National Meeting (2000), National Academy of Arbitrators (Fall, 2000, and University of Louisville Carl Wairns Symposium (June, 2001).
Memorable Career Moment:
Having a party ask his attorney “and who's the young fellow at the end of the table?” When you are 26 and arbitrating cases, such comments are not surprising. A similar remark now would be greatly appreciated.
Intriguing Interests:
Central defender on the team which was runner-up in the Over 50 National Soccer Championship.
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