Thursday, February 27th

8 a.m PST| 11 a.m EST

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Our special guest this week, Jonathan Anschell, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary Mattel, Inc., will Present on:

Negotiation -- Back to Basics

A refresher on negotiation approaches and techniques, from building rapport before a negotiation through the fine art of taking yes for an answer to close a deal.

When you’re thinking about where to donate, please consider supporting the food bank, SOVA Food Pantry

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Our presenter:

Jonathan Anschell is Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Mattel. He joined Mattel in 2021. In his role, Mr. Anschell oversees all legal responsibilities for Mattel’s operations and transactions, as well as corporate governance, securities, intellectual property, litigation, and privacy. He also is responsible for compliance and government affairs.

Prior to joining Mattel, Mr. Anschell served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for ViacomCBS Media Networks, leading the legal affairs team for all CBS entertainment and news operations, as well as the business and legal affairs teams for the ViacomCBS cable networks in the U.S. and internationally.

Before the CBS-Viacom merger in 2019, Mr. Anschell served as General Counsel of CBS Television and Deputy General Counsel and Secretary of CBS Corporation, where he was responsible for corporate governance, securities, intellectual property, employment, and real estate legal functions. Before joining CBS in 2004, he was a partner at White O’Connor Curry, a Los Angeles-based law firm specializing in commercial and entertainment-related litigation. He is also a former editor of Communications Lawyer, the American Bar Association’s journal on media and communications law.

Mr. Anschell received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Toronto, where he was an associate editor of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Media Law Resource Center and as a Director and past Chair of the Board of Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono law firm.

Offered by Will Work For Food, founded by Natalie Armstrong-Motin (www.HowToMarketMyMediationPractice.com and moderated by Jeff Kichaven (www.JeffKichaven.com ) and Jean Lawler (www.LawlerADR.com)

This worldwide conversation will be like nothing else.  Join in!  Share, learn, have fun, and raise money for food banks.

Thursday, March 27th

8 a.m PST| 11 a.m EST

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Our special guest this week, Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter will Present on:

From Supernova to Settlement: Lessons in Observation and Data

Using his groundbreaking work on supernovae as a guide, Perlmutter illustrates how meticulous observation and data can light the way toward just and efficient outcomes.

Using his groundbreaking work on supernovae as a guide, Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter illustrates how meticulous observation and data can illuminate the path to just and efficient outcomes. In this insightful presentation, he bridges the worlds of science and law, showing how the rigorous methods that uncovered the universe’s accelerating expansion can be applied to negotiation, mediation, and advocacy. Attendees will discover how to sharpen their focus on evidence, approach conflict with open-minded inquiry, and develop strategies that are grounded in clarity and verifiable facts—ultimately elevating the art of legal practice and dispute resolution.  

When you’re thinking about where to donate, please consider supporting the food bank, The Berkeley Food Pantry

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Our presenter:

Saul Perlmutter is a 2011 Nobel Laureate, sharing the prize in Physics for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe.   He is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the Franklin W. and Karen Weber Dabby Chair, and a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  

He is the leader of the international Supernova Cosmology Project, and director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science and executive director of the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics. His undergraduate degree was from Harvard and his PhD from UC Berkeley.  In addition to other awards and honors, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  

Dr. Perlmutter has also written popular articles, and has appeared in numerous PBS, Discovery Channel, and BBC documentaries.  His interest in teaching  scientific-style critical thinking for scientists and non-scientists alike led to Berkeley courses on Sense and Sensibility and Science and Physics & Music.

Offered by Will Work For Food, founded by Natalie Armstrong-Motin (www.HowToMarketMyMediationPractice.com and moderated by Jeff Kichaven (www.JeffKichaven.com ) and Jean Lawler (www.LawlerADR.com)

This worldwide conversation will be like nothing else.  Join in!  Share, learn, have fun, and raise money for food banks.

Thursday, April 17th

8 a.m PST| 11 a.m EST

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Our special guest this week, Lindsay Breedlove, Senior Director, Litigation & Regulatory Counsel will Present on:

Mediations From Hell

When you’re thinking about where to donate, please consider supporting the food bank, Greater Cleveland Food Bank

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Our presenter:

Lindsay Breedlove is a Senior Director at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, a rare disease biotech in Northern California. She serves as both the strategic leader of the company's litigation and investigations portfolio, and North American risk and regulatory counsel, focusing on fraud and abuse, promotional, and privacy issues. Prior to going in-house, she was a partner at Troutman Pepper in Philadelphia.

Lindsay graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and cum laude from Georgetown University, with a B.A. in government and psychology.

Offered by Will Work For Food, founded by Natalie Armstrong-Motin (www.HowToMarketMyMediationPractice.com and moderated by Jeff Kichaven (www.JeffKichaven.com ) and Jean Lawler (www.LawlerADR.com)

This worldwide conversation will be like nothing else.  Join in!  Share, learn, have fun, and raise money for food banks.

Thursday, April 24th

8 a.m PST| 11 a.m EST

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Our special guests this week, Chuck Doran, Organizational Ombuds / Mediator / Executive Director, will Present on:

The Organizational Ombuds – What A Mediator Might Want To Know About This Unique Role

An organizational ombuds serves as an independent, impartial, informal, and confidential resource for members of an organization to help them surface and resolve concerns while providing upward anonymous feedback to leadership. Ombuds use a variety of skills including confidential listening, interest exploration, brainstorming, and other skills familiar to mediators.

Despite drawing from a similar toolbox, how are the roles of the ombuds and mediator different and complimentary? Join Chuck Doran, mediator and outsourced organizational ombuds (bio available here), to discuss the ombuds function and what a mediator might want to know about exploring this unique role.

Registrants are encouraged to read the following articles in advance of the session - https://www.mwi.org/mediator-as-ombuds and this article from the Journal of the International Ombuds Association - https://ioa.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/JIOA_Articles/JIOA-2024-O%20for%20Publication.pdf

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When you’re thinking about where to donate, please consider The Open Door - Ipswich Pantry

Our presenters:

Chuck Doran is an experienced mediator and outsourced organizational ombuds specializing in the resolution of employment, franchise, and other commercial disputes. A mediator since 1992, he is a member of the CPR Dispute Resolution Panel of Distinguished Neutrals and the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. Chuck has provided mediation and other ADR services to a variety of clients including AT&T, Bose, BMW of North America, Coca-Cola, CVS Health, General Motors, Oxfam America, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), and the USPS REDRESS I and REDRESS II Mediation Panels. Chuck is a Certified Organizational Ombuds Practitioner (CO-OP) and a member of the International Ombuds Association who completed ombuds training with the IOA in 1995. Chuck has served as an outsourced organizational ombuds for companies, universities, and other organizations since 1997 and received a President's Award from the IOA in 2024. In 1993, Chuck completed a Specialization in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. In 1994, Chuck founded MWI, a nationally recognized dispute resolution service and training organization based in Boston, MA that provides individual and corporate clients with mediation services, outsourced organizational ombuds services, negotiation consulting and training, and mediation training. Chuck has served as a teaching assistant on multiple occasions with Professor Roger Fisher at Harvard Law School's Program of Instruction for Lawyers Negotiation Workshop. In 1993, Chuck completed a Specialization in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at the Program on Negotiation and chaired two regional ADR Conferences in 1997 and 1999. Chuck served as a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution and was Chair of the Qualifications Subcommittee. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Advisory Group and is a past president of the Association for Conflict Resolution, New England Chapter. Chuck is also a Distinguished Fellow with the International Academy of Mediators (IAM) and a past president of IAM's Board of Governors.

Offered by Will Work For Food, founded by Natalie Armstrong-Motin (www.HowToMarketMyMediationPractice.com and moderated by Jeff Kichaven (www.JeffKichaven.com ) and Jean Lawler (www.LawlerADR.com)

This worldwide conversation will be like nothing else.  Join in!  Share, learn, have fun, and raise money for food banks.

Thursday, May 1st

8:00am PST | 11:00am EST

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Our guest this week Steve Nelson, EVP/Senior Director Markel Surety, Markel Insurance Co, SureTec Insurance Co. presents:

Emerging Trends in Dispute Avoidance and Resolution in the Construction Industry - Ideas Other Sectors May Wish to Adopt

When you’re thinking about which food bank to support, please consider North Texas Food Bank

Presentation Description:

The Construction industry is one plagued with disputes. It has always been an early adopter of ADR processes. The components of a construction project – time, money, and quality—are equally important components of a good ADR process. An owner is often told by the contractor before commencing a construction project “pick two of the three because you won’t get all three”, the designer of an ADR process must often emphasize two components over the third.

Herein lies the balancing act. Because one size doesn’t necessarily fit all in ADR, parties and good neutrals are continually tweaking the ADR process.

New options emerge from that tweaking. Whether you are an advocate in the ADR process or the neutral, your goal is not to pick a process that fits all disputes, but rather to formulate one that is right for the particular dispute at hand. This presentation will focus on some of the variations on the traditional approaches that Steve is seeing now, and which he believes may become even more popular over the next five years, not only in the construction arena, but in other areas of dispute.

About our presenter:

Steve Nelson has nearly fifty years of experience in dispute avoidance and resolution in the construction industry – twenty years in a large law firm practice, five years as CEO of a major construction company and twenty-four years as the chief claims officer of a Fortune 500 surety company. Steve has mediated over 2,000 construction related cases, as the mediator, since the 1980’s and throughout his tenure in private practice, construction and surety. He is a Fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers, a Fellow of the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution at the University of Texas, a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, a Distinguished Credentialed Mediator by the Texas Mediator Credentialing Association, Past-Chairman of the Central Texas Chapter of the Association of Attorney-Mediators, and since 1999, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Civil Engineering, where he teaches a graduate course in construction industry dispute avoidance and resolution.

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