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Attorney
By
Attorney
 Career
Profiles of the Profession
Who?
What?
Primary Practice Area :
Mediation; Facilitation; Conciliation; Teaching; Training; Coaching;
Consulting
Subspecialty Fields:
Family/Divorce; Community; Juvenile (e.g., delinquency; parent-child);
Multi-Party Disputes; Employment Discrimination; Sexual Harassment;
Criminal Misdemeanors (e.g., assault and battery; criminal damage
to property); Landlord/Tenant; Consumer; Neighbors; and School Issues.
Also, specialty in: How to Screen for (and Deal with) the Presence
of Domestic Violence in Family Mediations.
When?
Years in Practice Area:
Since 1978
Years in the Legal Profession:
Since 1977
Where?
Employer:
Circuit Court of Cook County
Marriage and Family Counseling Service
69 West Washington, Suite 1000
Chicago, IL 60602
(312) 603-1540
Size/Sector:
Court (Domestic Relations Division)
City/State:
Chicago, Illinois
Law School:
DePaul University College of Law
Chicago, IL
J.D.
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Undergraduate School/Degree:
Carleton College
Northfield, MN
B.A., American Studies
Other Post Graduate Education:
Innumerable seminars and conferences on ADR and Mediation,
as well as in substantive areas related to family dynamics,
divorce, and interviewing children (just to name a few).
Volunteer Work:
Center for Conflict Resolution
11 East Adams, Suite 500
Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 922-6464 |
Why?
Pluses/Challenges of Practice Area:
Pluses: Working with
a wide variety of people from all ethnic, racial, religious, and
socio-economic backgrounds to help them communicate and, if possible,
resolve their disputes. Working with children and adults. Educating
the public about peaceful methods to manage and resolve conflict.
Not being responsible for the decisions that other people make,
but helping them to make as informed and self-determined decisions
as possible.
Challenges: Accepting that not all people are ready or able to
resolve/end their conflicts, and that I don't have all the "magic
tricks" to make that happen. Bringing as much empathy to
the table as possible.
Core Skills/Key Knowledge Needed in Your Practice Area:
Strong mediation skills, including patience, empathy, genuine
interest and concern for the parties, being nonjudgmental, listening,
and being able to shift your strategies/interventions on a dime
and "go with where the parties are at," and not with where you
want them to be. I tend to believe more in the power of excellent
mediation/conflict resolution skills than in substantive knowledge,
however, in the area of family mediation, it is important to learn
as much as possible about family dynamics (especially during divorce
and separation), child development, and the effects high conflict
between parents has on their children.
A mediator who mediates community and family-related disputes
must be able to tolerate a very high level of conflict between
the parties
Also, this is not a static field, going through an initial
mediation training is not enough. A dedicated mediator must continue
to learn and hone his/her skills. There is so much to learn, and
so many different ways to use your skills. That is what makes
it an exciting, vibrant field.
Advice to Lawyers and Law Students Interested in Your Practice
Area:
Join your local and state dispute resolution/mediation associations
and meet other people in the field.
Attend conferences and workshops to develop both your mediation
skills, and to learn more about the substantive area in which
you mediate. I would strongly recommend attending the annual conferences
of the National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution,
the Association for Conflict Resolution, and the American Bar
Association Section on Dispute Resolution, as well as local conferences
in your geographic locale. Try to learn what is going on in the
mediation field nationally and internationally. Educate yourself
as to the important issues in the field. Don't mediate within
a vacuum. This is still a developing field.
Law students should take advantage of any Alternative Dispute
Resolution or Mediation classes being offered at their school.
Better yet, if your law school offers a Mediation Clinic where
you can mediate actual cases, sign up for that program.
Sign up for as many mediation panels as possible. Do mediations
pro bono. Get some hands-on experience.
Join all the ADR/mediation listservs available on the internet
to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field.
Once you gain experience as a mediator, help and coach newcomers
to the field.
How?
Career Path to Current Position:
1. Volunteer Mediator, Board of Directors Member, Trainer, Coach,
Community Consensus Project Advisory Board Member, Peer Review Committee
Member at the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago, IL (1978-present).
2. Assistant Staff Director of the American Bar Association's Young
Lawyers Division (1984-1989) and Project Coordinator for the American
Bar Association's Youth Education for Citizenship Committee (1989-1990)
where I was able to integrate my interest in mediation and ADR into
some of my work with state and local bar associations around the
country.
3. Attorney-Administrator for the Illinois Supreme Court's Coordinating
Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution (1990-1991).
4. Adjunct Faculty teaching Mediation, Advanced Mediation, and
Mediation Clinic at DePaul University College of Law (1987-2000).
5. Adjunct Faculty teaching Mediation at Chicago-Kent College of
Law (Illinois Institute of Technology) (1999-present).
6. Mediator and Supervisor for the Marriage and Family Counseling
Service (the mediation service) of the Circuit Court of Cook County's
Domestic Relations Division (1991-present). Mediate child custody
and visitation disputes with divorcing parents, divorced parents,
and parents who have not been married to one another. Teach a parenting-after-divorce
and separation class for parents in the court system.
Influences and Mentors:
All the staff and volunteers at Chicago's Center for Conflict Resolution; Jon Weiss and Susan Yates, both former Executive Directors of the Center for Conflict Resolution; the past and present staff at the Circuit Court of Cook County's Marriage and Family Counseling Service; Dick Salem; Michael Nathanson; Sharon Zingery; and my first mediation trainers in 1979: Dick Fincher, Rocco Scanza, and Laverne Rolle from the American Arbitration Association in Chicago. My parents for being role models and teaching me the importance and value of volunteering and giving back to the community.
Suggested Reading About Your Practice Area:
1. Lovenheim, Peter, HOW TO MEDIATE YOUR DISPUTE (Nolo Press,
1996)
2. Fisher, Roger and William Ury, GETTING TO YES: NEGOTIATING
AGREEMENT WITHOUT GIVING IN (Penguin Books, 2d ed. 1991)
3. Moore, Christopher W., THE MEDIATION PROCESS: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES
FOR RESOLVING CONFLICT (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2d ed. 1996)
4. Haynes, John M., THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FAMILY MEDIATION (State
University of New York Press, 1994)
5. Johnston, Janet R. and Vivienne Roseby, IN THE NAME OF THE
CHILD: A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING AND HELPING CHILDREN
OF CONFLICTED AND VIOLENT DIVORCE (The Free Press, 1997)
6. Royko, David, VOICES OF CHILDREN OF DIVORCE (Golden Books,
1999)
7. Boyan, Susan Blyth and Ann Marie Termini, COOPERATIVE PARENTING
AND DIVORCE: "SHIELDING YOUR CHILD FROM CONFLICT" - A PARENT GUIDE
TO EFFECTIVE CO-PARENTING (Active Parenting Publishers, 1997,1999)
Job Search Techniques Used in Finding Your Position(s):
Find your local not-for-profit conflict resolution center and
volunteer, volunteer, volunteer!!! If you don't have such a center
in your area - start one. The experience that can be gained at
these centers is invaluable. A great many of the mediators in
Chicago who mediate for a living, were trained by and mediate(d)
at the Center for Conflict Resolution.
Join and attend meetings and presentations at local ADR and mediation
organizations. Volunteer to work on committees. Talk to as many
people in the field as possible. Some local organizations have
a mentor program that can match you up with an experienced mediator
in the field of your choice with whom you can talk, and with whom
you may even be able to observe or co-mediate.
Bar Affiliations and Activities:
Licensed to practice law in Illinois
American Bar Association
Association for Conflict Resolution (the merged organization
of SPIDR, AFM, and CRENet) - national member; local member (Member
of the Board of Directors; member of the Legislative Committee)
Mediation Council of Illinois - Member of the Board of Directors;
Member of the Ethics Committee and the Legislative Committee
Related Publications:
1. ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (Practice Handbook), Chapter
26 - Community Mediation (Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal
Education, 2001)
2. Point-Counter: A Mediator Can't Have It Both Ways, ASSOCIATION
OF FAMILY AND CONCILIATION COURTS NEWSLETTER, Volume 13, Number
2, p. 7 (AFCC, Madison, WI, Spring, 1994).
3. Nonadversarial Conflict Resolution Simulation in a School
Setting, "Supreme Court Docket," SOCIAL EDUCATION, Volume 54,
Number 5, pp. 263-266 (National Council for the Social Studies,
Washington, DC, September, 1990)
Professoinal Presentations:
1. Screening for Power Imbalances/Impediments to Mediation (Domestic
Violence, Substance, and Mental Illness)
2. Child-Focused Mediation
3. Mediating in a Fishbowl: An Effective Training Technique
4. Attorney Advocacy in Mediation
5. Using an Evaluative Tool in a Facilitative Process: Training
Mediators to Do Effective Reality Testing
The above topics have been presented at conferences held by the
Association for Conflict Resolution (merger of AFM, SPIDR, and
CRENet), the Academy of Family Mediators (AFM), The Association
for Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), the Mediation Council
of Illinois, the Wisconsin Association of Mediators, the Society
for Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR), the Chicago Bar
Association, the Lake County (IL) Bar Association, and the Northern
Illinois University Law Review Symposium, as well as at other
organizations.
Memorable Career Moment:
1. Being nominated by the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago
for the National Association for Community Mediation's (NAFCM)
First Annual Community Volunteer Mediator of the Year Award (2001),
and BEING SELECTED AS ONE OF THE NATIONAL RECIPIENTS OF THE AWARD!!!
2. Being part of a Conciliation Delegation from the Center for
Conflict Resolution to China, and meeting with our mediation/conflict
resolution counterparts.
3. Helping other communities start their own dispute resolution
centers (e.g., Richmond, VA; Salt Lake City, UT).
4. Being a volunteer Board Member, Mediator, Trainer, Facilitator,
Peer Reviewer, and Coach for Chicago's Center for Conflict Resolution
continually since 1978.
Intriguing Interests:
International travel; volunteer work; the field of conflict resolution.
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