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Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution

Advanced Mediation: Skills and Techniques

Faculty: Bruce Edwards and Nina Meierding

**Includes 2 CLE hours of ethics and 1 CLE hour of elimination of bias.

Advanced mediation is a highly interactive course that moves far beyond introductory lectures and simple role-plays to draw upon the vast mediation work of the highly experienced trainers who have more than 8,000 mediations between them and the wisdom of experienced participants. Much of the course will consist of comparing participants’ techniques and approaches to common problems in mediation. The course will be limited in enrollment.

Participants are accepted through application. They must have completed acceptable, basic mediation training, and have significant experience as a mediator.

What you will learn:

  • Review of the "STAR" approach to mediation
  • Stages in complex mediations
  • Understanding how different techniques apply to early, mid-stage, and
    late-stage negotiations
  • Tasks and strategies in resolving difficult cases
  • Activities of experienced mediators in moving beyond impasse
  • Results that experienced mediators seek beyond just a settlement, including the art of the apology
  • The best advice from colleagues in the field who have financially successful practices--including what separates the trained mediator with no cases from the one who is in demand
  • What prominent mediation organizations tell panelists about procedures, practices, and ethical dilemmas

Bruce Edwards is one of JAMS/Endispute's most experienced attorney mediators. He has extensive expertise in handling complex, multiparty cases with emphasis on construction, business, environmental, and traumatic personal injury matters. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Davis, and his law degree from Hastings College of Law. Edwards cofounded the Bates Edwards Group in 1991 (which merged with JAMS/Endispute in 1994) after a highly successful career as a litigation partner with the San Francisco office of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. He has mediated over 4,000 disputes in 42 states since 1986. Edwards teaches advanced mediation courses in the United States and western Europe.

Nina Meierding is a national leader in the field of conflict resolution and has been providing training and mediation services for over 24 years. She is a former president of the Academy of Family Mediators and served on the board of directors of the Association for Conflict Resolution and many other organizations. She is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University, Southern Methodist University, and Lipscomb University. She was the director and senior mediator at the Mediation Center for Family Law in Ventura, California, from 1985 to 2007 where she mediated over 4,000 disputes. She is a consultant for the Wisconsin Special Education Mediation System (WSEMS). Meierding has trained thousands of individuals in businesses, courts, school districts, governmental agencies, medical centers, corporations, and universities throughout the United States and abroad.