Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

PAGE PREVIEW

Last month, I was asked to present a continuing legal education program to between 60 and 100 government attorneys working for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania who were active as mediators and mediation participants.

The topic was Best Practices for Online Mediation. Having only minimal field experience, I reached out to my colleague, attorney Selina J. Shultz, of Pittsburgh’s Conflict Lab, a conflict resolution provider and consulting firm, to be lead “knowledge-person” because of her more extensive experience working daily on Zoom. I also reached out to my Master Mediator colleagues around the globe.

I held serious doubts about the staying power of online mediation once the pandemic is over. I believed that practices would be normalized back to our tried-and-true ways and means.