Recent News

October 19, 2012

ADR Committee Brings Together Panel for Views on Mediation

Last year, the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution (IRL School of Cornell University), the International Institute for Conflict Prevent and Resolution, and the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution (Pepperdine University Law School) surveyed the use of ADR by Fortune 1000 corporations. The 2011 survey, replicating a survey done in 1997, found that the principal reasons companies use ADR was because it saves time and money, preserves good relationships, results in more satisfactory settlements, is a more satisfactory process and allows parties to resolve disputes themselves.

The ADR Committee will present a panel discussion Thursday, October 25 (3:00-5:00pm) examining mediation from the perspective of in-house counsel, a mediator, and outside counsel. Discussion topics include how to inform clients about dispute resolution as an alternative to litigation; the factors attorneys consider in selecting a mediator; how to be effective in mediation; how corporations and outside counsel view mediation; and emerging policies and practices in the use of ADR.

Bring your questions and join us for this informative discussion. RSVP to Donna Sweet at Donna@cbalaw.org. Our prestigious panel will include:

GLORI FITCH ( AEP Senior Counsel) –Ms. Fitch was in private civil practice for 9 years and has 14 years of in-house corporate experience. She has worked for Allstate, Grange and AEP and participated in ADR as counsel for a party, as a mediator and as an arbitrator. While in private practice, she volunteered as a mediator for Franklin County "Settlement Week" and also served as an arbitrator in Franklin County. Recently, she managed and served in AEP's pro bono foreclosure mediation program for Carroll and Jefferson County. She has experience with establishing corporate ADR programs and evaluating corporate ADR program results and vendors.

MICHAEL J. GALEANO Sr. ( Director and Counsel for Alliance Data) represents both the issuer and servicer of over 80 credit card programs. He assists his clients in their credit card program relationships with their retail clients. He also manages all litigation related to such programs. Previously, he was a partner at Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter and then general counsel for United McGill. He has served as an adjunct professor at both Ohio Northern Law School and Capital Law School.

JEFFREY W. HUTSON (Lane Alton and Horst) has been a mediator for over 20 years, in addition to arbitrating cases as a neutral and representing parties in court for more than 40 years. He brings extensive experience as a trial lawyer in insurance, personal injury, professional malpractice and construction to the mediation. While the majority of the cases he mediates are in construction, he has successfully mediated receivership, commercial contract, personal injury and professional malpractice disputes involving multiple parties and their insurance carriers. He serves on the "Blue Ribbon" panel of the U. S. District Court (Eastern Division, Southern District), on special assignment by judges of Franklin County Common Pleas and as a magistrate for the Ohio Court of Claims.

MARIE-JOËLLE C. KHOUZAM, (Carlile Patchen & Murphy, managing partner) heads up the firm’s Labor & Employment Law group. Her practice consists of counseling and defending management clients in the private and public sectors on a broad range of employment, workers’ compensation and labor-law issues. She is a frequent author and speaker on employment law topics and conducts on-site management training designed to help companies avoid costly litigation. She also serves as a mediator in labor and employment disputes. Ms. Khouzam recently authored the Ohio chapter of a 50-state treatise on employment at will co-published by the ABA and the Bureau of National Affairs.