Strategic Choices: Picking Your Playing Field (2022 Dispute Resolution Section Program)
8:25 Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:55 Welcome and Introductions
9:00 Dispute Resolution Commission Rules and Opinions*≠
Tara Lynn Kozlowski, North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission, Raleigh
Receive an overview of the DRC Rules and Standards applied to mediators during an ongoing pandemic and discuss any updates to the rules and opinions in the last year.
10:00 Break
10:10 Going From Good to Great: The Golden Rules of Negotiation
Steve Dunn, Miles Mediation and Arbitration, Charlotte Joseph Edward Kennedy, UNC School of Law, Chapel Hill
As mediators, we frequently coach people as they negotiate a settlement to their dispute. For us to be great coaches, we must have top-notch information about the best negotiation practices. Hear a law professor and a long-time mediator share their experience and research into the skills and habits of the best negotiators.
11:10 Break
11:20 Unconventional Responses to Unique Catastrophes: Tailoring the Law to Meet the Challenges
Kenneth R. "Ken" Feinberg, The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg, Washington, D.C.
Listen as one of the nation's leading experts in mediation and alternative dispute resolution explores compensation programs designed and administered as an alternative to conventional litigation. Using the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund and the Deepwater Horizon BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Fund, this session focuses on how these funds are drafted, the rare circumstances giving rise to such funds, and how they interact with courts and litigators.
12:50 Lunch Break
1:35 Go Ask Tara: The DRC's Responses to Unique Mediation Cases*≠
Tara Lynn Kozlowski, North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission, Raleigh
Expanding on the DRC Rules and Opinions covered in an earlier session, the executive director of the NC Dispute Resolution Commission addresses specific questions about unique situations encountered by mediators during the pandemic and what an appropriate response from the Commission may be.
2:35 Break
2:45 The Collaborative Playing Field
Colleen Byers, Colleen Byers Mediation LLC, Winston-Salem Deborah L. "Deb" Dilman, Southpark Family Law, Charlotte Irene P. King, King Collaborative Family Law, Charlotte John Ong, John Ong Mediation & Collaborative Law, Charlotte
With two different Uniform Collaborative Law Acts — one in family law and one in civil law — North Carolina is a national leader in this form of alternative dispute resolution. Learn how the collaborative law process offers an innovated and client-centered approach to legal problem-solving. Hone your interest-based negotiation skills and develop effective client-counseling techniques for managing emotionally charged issues.
The past two years have been unique to all of us, both personally and professionally. Although the general consensus is that most legal matters should be resolved using a dispute resolution method rather than litigation, those methods are even more important now given the pandemic-induced backlogs our court system is facing.
Contributors
Colleen L. Byers
Colleen L. Byers is the founder and owner of Colleen Byers Mediation LLC in Winston-Salem. A seasoned civil litigator with deep business and legal experience, Colleen focuses on mediating complex business, employment, trust, estate, fiduciary and family disputes to help companies, families and individuals solve their legal problems outside the courtroom.
Colleen's conflict resolution approach weaves together practical business insight, active listening, and strategic foresight. Colleen leverages more than a decade of litigation experience to help people, whether business owners or families, settle legal disputes quickly, effectively, and creatively.
In addition to being trained in the collaborative law process, Colleen is also certified by the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission to mediate Superior Court cases as well as matters pending before the Clerk of Court. Colleen currently serves on the Boards of Directors of both the North Carolina Civil Collaborative Law Association and Forsyth Humane Society.
All of Colleen's education is from Creighton University, a Jesuit University in Omaha, NE. She is proud to be a triple Blue Jay, having earned her B.A., summa cum laude, her M.B..A, and J.D., cum laude, from Creighton University.
Colleen's training as a trauma-informed, registered yoga teacher also influences her unique mediation style. Applying yoga and mindfulness principles to her mediation practice, Colleen effectively de-escalates conflict and guides parties to expand their perspectives and achieve settlement outcomes. Colleen's role as a mother, wife and community leader also provide her ample opportunity to practice her conflict resolution and communication skills.
Deborah L. Dilman is an attorney at Southpark Family Law in Charlotte. She had worked for many years in the financial industry prior to practicing family law. While she enjoyed her employment, she did not feel she was making a meaningful impact on client's lives. She wanted to work to make lives better and to empower people to make important decisions for themselves and for their families, and those goals ultimately led her to law school. Deborah was determined to not only be a good attorney but to really listen to clients and understand their needs and concerns. Upon graduation, she began her career with Legal Aid of North Carolina in Winston-Salem. In February 2005, Deborah shifted her practice to focus exclusively on family law, an area of law she absolutely loves.
Deborah completed her undergraduate degree in Business at Queens University in Charlotte. Eighteen years later, she received her law degree from Syracuse University College of Law. Deborah is a certified Family Financial Mediator registered with the NC Dispute Resolution Commission and is a certified Collaborative Law Attorney.
Steve Dunn is a managing neutral with Miles Mediation & Arbitration in Charlotte. He spent his entire 20-year litigation career at one firm, the Charlotte employment law boutique Van Hoy, Reutlinger, Adams & Dunn. His clients ranged from individual executives to Fortune 500 companies in virtually every industry, including banking, education, manufacturing, technology, construction, marketing, motorsports, and public sector clients throughout North Carolina.
Steve has extensive experience litigating all forms of employment discrimination in the North Carolina federal courts and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Through his representation of cities, counties, and public colleges, Steve developed an appreciation of the unique needs of public sector clients, including the First Amendment, public records, and constitutional torts.
Steve is a graduate of Duke University and University of North Carolina School of Law.
Kenneth Roy Feinberg is an American attorney specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution in Washington, DC. He served as the Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Kennedy, Special Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. He founded his own firm The Feinberg Group (now the Law Offices of Kenneth Feinberg) in 1993, he was a founding partner at the Washington office of Kaye Scholer LLP.
Additionally, Kenneth served as the government-appointed administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. He was also appointed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to administer the One Fund—the victim assistance fund established in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Kenneth was also retained by General Motors to assist in their recall response and by Volkswagen to oversee their U.S. compensation of VW diesel owners affected by the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Kenneth was hired by The Boeing Company in July 2019, to oversee distribution of $50 million to support 737 MAX crash victim families.
Kenneth is also an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1967 and his J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law in 1970.
Joseph Edward Kennedy is a Professor of Law at UNC School of Law in Chapel Hill. Joseph joined the Carolina Law faculty in 1997 and serves as the Martha Brandis Professor of Law. He teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Investigation and Cybercrime Law. He has in the past taught Cybersecurity Law, Constitutional Law, International and Comparative Criminal Law and Lawyering Skills.
Joseph is a past Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and taught in China in 2012 as a Fulbright Lecturer. Kennedy is the author of numerous articles and essays on criminal law and the criminal justice system. His writings have appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He writes often on mass incarceration and the War on Drugs. His article, Monstrous Offenders and the Search for Solidarity Through Modern Punishment, was selected for publication in Criminal Law Conversations, a collection of seminal criminal law articles published in 2009 by Oxford University Press. He has presented his scholarly work at Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, Yale Law School, Oxford University, and the Annual Meetings of the Association of American Law Schools, Law and Society, and the American Society of Criminology. He is the solo author of the textbook Criminal Law: Cases, Controversies and Problems and The Short and Happy Guide to Criminal Law. Joseph comments regularly on criminal justice issues in the media. He has published opinion editorials with Slate Magazine and has appeared on CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Fox Weekend Live, and National Public Radio,
Joseph received his Bachelor's Degree in History with Honors from Stanford University and his law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he served on the Law Review. Prior to teaching, Kennedy worked as an advocate at a center for the homeless in Los Angeles and practiced law as a litigation associate for Morrison and Foerster and as a public defender in San Francisco.
Tara L. Kozlowski
is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission.
She has been with the Commission since July of 2018. Prior to working with the
DRC Tara was a family law litigator and mediator, practicing with a
small firm in Wake County. Tara obtained a B.S. degree in Chemistry
from Indiana University, and her J.D. degree from The University of Toledo
College of Law in 2006. She lives in
Apex with her husband, two daughters, and two yellow labs. Please feel free to
contact her at the DRC office anytime with questions or to introduce yourself.
Irene P. King is an experienced Collaborative Divorce lawyer, mediator and fully recovered trial lawyer. In 2015, after litigating high conflict cases for over a decade at James McElroy and Diehl PA, in Charlotte, Irene put down her sword and battle shield and founded King Collaborative Family Law, where she compassionately guides clients in resolving all family conflict outside of the courtroom. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Family Law and devotes a significant amount of her practice to negotiating and preparing Prenuptial, Postnuptial, Separation and Cohabitation Agreements.
Originally from Indiana, Irene graduated, summa cum laude, from Miami University of Ohio in 2000 with a B.A. in political science and a minor in vocal music performance. She earned her J.D. from The University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill where she clerked for everyone's favorite family law professor, Sally Sharp.
Irene is a North Carolina Super Lawyer in Family Law, Legal Elite, and has received other accolades for her work as a family lawyer. She is the past President and Executive Board member of the Charlotte Collaborative Divorce Professionals, and an active member of the North Carolina Collaborative Attorney Network, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, My Collaborative Team, NC Civil Collaborative Law Association, Association of Family Conciliation Courts, Global Collaborative Law Council, North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, Charlotte Women Lawyers and other organizations.
Frank C. Laney was Circuit Mediator for the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for 25 years, mediating more than 5000 cases before retiring in April 2022. After serving as an ex-officio member of the NC Dispute Resolution Commission since its inception in 1995, he was appointed as a commissioner in 2021.
Frank is also an adjunct professor at Campbell University and North Carolina Central University Schools of Law and is a Senior Lecturing Fellow at High Point University School of Law. He teaches the NC Dispute Resolution Commission required training for mediator certification with CDSS.
Frank recently completed his book, The Practical Mediator, a collection of articles he has written about the field of mediation.
Frank is the former Mediation Coordinator for the North Carolina Industrial Commission and for three years in the early 1990's limited his private practice in Raleigh to mediation.
Frank has been a member of the North Carolina Bar Association Dispute Resolution Committee/Section since its inception and is a past Section Chair. He chaired the joint Section-Commission committee responsible for the 2012 updating and rewriting of Alternative Dispute Resolution in North Carolina, A New Civil Procedure, serving as an author and co-editor of the book. In 2004, the Section presented him with the Peace Award.
Frank is certified as a mediator in the Superior Court, Family Financial, District Criminal Court and Clerk Programs by the NC Dispute Resolution Commission and as a practitioner member of the Academy of Family Mediators.
Frank earned his B.A. from North Carolina State University and his J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
John W. Ong is the founder of John Ong Mediation & Collaborative Law in Charlotte. He is an attorney and mediator, is known as a creative problem solver in areas including construction and major loss cases. With over 30 years of litigation experience and over 14 years as a mediator certified by the NCDRC to conduct Superior Court Mediations, John recently opened his own firm to provide personalized service to his clients.
John is on the Council of the NCBA Dispute Resolution Commission, is the Inaugural Chair of the NCBA Construction Section's Dispute Resolution Committee and is one of the Founding Board Members of the North Carolina Civil Collaborative Law Committee.
John earned his B.A. from Connecticut College and his J.D. from Emory University School of Law.