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Attorney By Attorney
Career Profiles of the Profession
Who?
What?
Primary Practice Area:
Small Business, Employment Law, and Dispute Resolution: Mediation and Arbitration
When?
Years in Practice Area:
Since 1975
Years in the Legal Profession:
Since 1975
Where?
Employer:
Joyce A. Mitchell & Associates P.C.
Size/Sector:
Small
City/State:
Silver Spring, MD
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Other Post-Graduate Education:
100 plus hours of mediation training in evaluative, facilitative, and transformative methods; 50 hours of arbitration training
Law School:
Howard University School of Law
Undergraduate School/Degree:
Tennessee State University, B.A., Spanish
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Why?
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost, The Road Less Traveled
Pluses of Practice Area:
Parties who submit their issues to alternative dispute resolution can expect a degree of privacy and either an early resolution to the matter or they can participate in designing the outcome. The process of mediation is not costly and can save clients money. This can have the ripple effect of keeping the client as repeat business and/or a good referral source. Lawyers who respect the economics of their case find great satisfaction in the early resolution of matters, especially if it ultimately should not have been in the judicial system.
Challenges of Practice Area:
Trial attorneys avoid the process because of perceived fears that an advantage may be lost or revealed in the informal tribunal of mediation. The other challenge is to encourage attorneys to utilize ADR often and early in their representation.
Core Skills/Key Knowledge Needed in Practice Area:
Subject-matter expertise, analytical and communication skills are needed.
Arbitration-An arbitrator is an individual with great dispute management skills, patience, courtesy and a judicious temperament for impartiality. Arbitrators must have respect for the integrity of the process, for the integrity of the disputants and a commitment to the process. Superior writing skills, trial experience, critical thinking, situation analysis and the ability to conduct a fair and impartial hearing are crucial.
Mediation-Mediators must have patience, persistence, common sense, a love for people, great listening skills, and an arsenal of negotiation skills and techniques. Training in the various types of mediation, i.e. facilitative, transformative or evaluative, and an understanding of conflict and human dynamics are essential. Accurate rephrasing, excellent writing skills and subject area expertise are important.
Advice to Law Students/Lawyers Interested in ADR:
Read various articles on arbitration and mediation. Take courses, and co-mediate. Talk with lawyers in your jurisdiction for tips on how they utilize dispute resolution in their practice, and how they prepare themselves and their clients for a mediation or arbitration session.
Advice to Law Students/Lawyers Interested in Small Business and Employment:
Have substantial subject area knowledge of the law; work in a business as legal counsel, represent small businesses as outside counsel. Attend seminars of the Chamber of Commerce, Business and Professional Associations, lecture on the subject and
pass out business cards to everyone you meet.
How?
Career Path to Current Position:
Legislative Counsel U.S. Department of Commerce
Law practice in a partnership in Washington DC, specializing in business law
In-house counsel to two Maryland small businesses (handled all labor and employment matters)
Law Practice in Maryland (specializing in business, employment and labor, mediation and arbitration)
Influences and Mentors:
Mediation and Arbitration: Marvin Johnson, Esq., of Maryland
nationally known mediator and arbitrator, Director of the Center
for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Crofton, MD
The Law, Politics, and Social Justice: Reverend Benjamin Hooks,
Esq., of Memphis TN, former chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission, Washington, DC and the Executive Director of the
NAACP, Baltimore, MD
Suggested Reading About Your Practice Area:
Bush, Robert A. and Folger, Joseph P. The Promise of Mediation:
Responding to Conflict Through Empowerment and Recognition
(San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers, 1994)
Craver, Charles, B. Summary Guide to Effective Legal Negotiation,
(St. Paul: Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 1997)
Gleason, Sandra E., Workplace Dispute Resolution: Directions
for the Twenty-First Century (East Lansing: Michigan State
University, 1997)
Lisnek, Paul M., Effective Negotiation and Mediation: A lawyers
Guide (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., 1992)
Karras, Chester, How To Get What You Want: The Negotiation
Game (New York: Harper Collins, 1992)
Levine, Joel, Solutions to Building a Mediation Practice,
Just Resolutions (ABA, Vol.5, No.14, April 2000, p.9)
Picker, Bennett G., Mediation Practice Guide: A Handbook
for Resolving Business Disputes (Silver Spring, MD: Pike
and Fisher, 1998).
Job Search Techniques Used in Finding Business:
Court Referral programs, government agency EEO dispute resolution
programs, bar association referral programs, other attorneys,
previous clients, website and advertisements in business and
professional publications.
Bar Affiliations and Activities:
Bar Association of Montgomery County MD (Co-Chair ADR
Section); National Bar Association; Maryland State Bar Association;
J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association of Prince George’s and Montgomery
County, MD; Member, ADR Section Council of the Maryland State Bar
Association (2001-2003); Chair Membership Services Committee, Bar
Association of Montgomery County, MD; Former Chair of the ADR Section
of the Bar Association of Montgomery County, MD (2 terms); Member
of the Advisory Council to the Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution
Office (MACRO) ( 2001 to 2003)
Recent Professional Presentations:
Mediation 2000- Is Mediation A Viable Means of Resolving Labor and Civil Rights Cases?, Seminar 6 at the 75th Annual Convention of the National Bar Association, Washington, DC, August 8, 2000
Early Resolution of Workplace Disputes: A Primer, presented at the 106th Annual Meeting and Law Day of the Bar Association of Montgomery County, MD, May 5, 2000
Practice Makes Perfect, Personnel Issues in the Office: The Family and Medical
Leave Act of 1993” delivered at the Employment Section Program
of the Bar Association of Montgomery County, MD March 25, 1999
in collaboration with the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association
MEDIATION: A Short Practice Guide for Counsel, Maryland State
Bar Association Annual Meeting, Education Programs, Session 1:
Behind Closed Doors: Preparation and Advocacy in Employment
Mediation, June 14, 2002
MAINTAINING DECORUM IN THE CONDUCT OF AN ARBITRATION HEARING,
the District of Columbia Attorney/Client Arbitration Board (ACAB)Brown
Bag Training Session, January 28, 2002
Memorable Career Moment:
In 1981, my client, Games Production, Inc., a minority owned company, won a contract with the District of Columbia Lottery and Charitable Games Board to operate the first legalized gambling games (Instant scratch-off lottery) in the District of Columbia.
Intriguing Interests:
Golf, reading books and listening to tapes by Wayne W.
Dyer, Andrew Weil, Gary Zukav and Deepak Chopra.
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