Purposeful Preparation: The 10 Essential Mediator Skills
By: Harold Coleman, Jr., Esq., CCA, Senior Vice President, AAA-ICDR^®; Executive Director/Mediator, AAA Mediation.org^®

Mediation Mind Shifts are the critical, incremental shifts in thinking that must occur to move people embroiled in conflict from entrenched, diametrically opposed positions at the outset of mediation toward the goal of resolution at the end. 

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, the AAA-ICDR^® supported parties’ options to utilize virtual arbitrations and mediations. With the closing of hearing rooms, however, virtual became the only option. 

Acceptance began slowly, from just 17 virtual “events” in March 2020, growing by an enormous 4,100+% by March 2021. “Events” are defined here as settlement conferences, preliminary hearings, pre-mediation conferences, mediation sessions, and evidentiary hearings—points reached along the way on the arbitration and mediation roadmaps from initiation of a case to

By: Frank Binda, Assistant Vice President, AAA^® Labor, Elections, and Employment 

A matter of urgent need arose in late January 2021, with a school district’s decision to resume in-person schooling by February 1. The affected public-sector union did not agree that their constituent schools were prepared to resume in-person classroom activity. An expedited arbitration resolved the matter in 10 days.

Here’s how it unfolded:

Day One

• The union issued a demand requesting an expedited arbitration to prevent

By: Cristina Ryan, Director of ADR Services, Construction Division, AAA^®

Initially scheduled for a live hearing in April 2020, this large, complex, multi-party matter changed to a virtual one when COVID-19 cancelled in-person hearings and the participants decided not to wait until restrictions were lifted and concerns alleviated