Why Mediation?

Yesterday, I was asked why I mediate when I enjoy the law so much. Easy, it's because there is great satisfaction in helping people in crisis find solutions that also help to preserve business, family and social relationships or help litigants find peace. The real question is why I waited so long to begin.

My mediation practice should have begun in 1963, when I was in Mrs. Asher's fifth grade class at Calabash Street Elementary School in Woodland Hills, California. I was asked by my friends to solve their argument. I suggested they talk to each other with me. They did, and the next time I saw them, they were the best of friends. This, and supporting many friends through many crisis during the tumultuous 60s and 70s, should have directed me towards mediation. But in the 70s, there were no formal mediation studies. 

Instead, I discovered political science in college and was among the first big wave of women to go to law school in the 70s with the idea that the law could help change lives. There were no classes on mediation or settlement theory, so I studied a classical legal curriculum, wrote for the law review, and learned how to write legal briefs and be a litigator. For the next 30 years, I advised, litigated and handled appeals involving issues as diverse as injury and insurance law, construction defects, products liability, multiparty litigation, business planning and disputes, non-profit law, and family issues. The law is many things, and knowing the law helps resolve many disputes, but it is not always fair, does not solve all disputes, and often neither party is happy with the result or the costs of litigation.

When two of my colleagues suggested mediation training, I was skeptical. I was busy with a thriving appellate practice and four children in high school, college and law school. Yet, after my first day of appellate mediation training with Dana Curtis Mediation (danacurtismediation.com) I knew I wanted to be a mediator. Since training, researching, and working as a mediator, I've seen how mediation has the power to resolve disputes, save relationships, and help people find peace.

That is why I mediate.