For some of the students in Professor Erika Gray’s Mediation course at Boston College Law School, the class on April 25 was the last class of their law school career. For others, the last class of the year. But that didn’t stop many of the class from engaging in an active discussion about mediation and its use in resolving disputes, as well as its value as a tool in their tool box for those about to begin their careers as lawyers.
Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA) Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Committee chairman Brian Jerome of Massachusetts Dispute Resolution Services was joined by fellow ADR Committee members and mediators Jeffrey Stern of The Mediation Group, Michael Zeytoonian of Dispute Resolution Counsel, LLC and Merriann Panarella as panelists for a presentation on Mediation at BC Law. The four experienced alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) practitioners presented a number of looks at mediation, starting with how each of their respective legal careers led them to mediation. From there, they shared anecdotal stories of their respective experiences with mediation as well, both as neutrals and also as lawyers representing parties in mediation.
Prof. Gray invites members of the ADR Committee to come and speak to her law students at both BC Law School and Suffolk Law School each year. She opened the program by asking panelists several questions about the types of cases that are good candidates for mediation, the unique cases in which mediation was used, the styles of mediation used, the challenges presented by parties in mediation, mediation’s place in the broader spectrum of Dispute Resolution processes and how a young lawyer might go about developing a mediation practice. Students were interested in the differences between mediation and arbitration, when to use each, and the challenges for lawyers in shifting from representing clients in the adversarial approach of litigation to an interest-based, problem solving type approaches like Collaborative Law or Mediation. They were also interested in how they could include Mediation in their own practices and young careers.
The MBA ADR Committee frequently presents lectures to the area law students as part of its mission of educating the members of the bar, fellow practitioners, law students and the public on the uses of ADR and the value of processes like Mediation, Collaborative Law, Arbitration, Conciliation and other methods of ADR. In the fall of 2016, the Committee will be converted to a full MBA Section status, initiating the new MBA Dispute Resolution Section.
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