Dr. Julie Macfarlane is Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Windsor, and Professor of the Practice at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. She has researched and written extensively on dispute resolution and in particular the role of lawyers, and her best-selling book - The New Lawyer: How Settlement is Transforming the Practice of Law (University of British Colombia Press in 2008) ignited a debate about the future of the legal profession across North America. Julie’s new book, forthcoming with Oxford University Press April 2012, Islamic Divorce in North America: A Shari’a Path in a Secular Society. Her new research is on the experiences of the growing population of self-represented litigants in family and civil courts.

 

Julie is an active mediator, and has been a recipient of the International Academy of Mediators Award of Excellence. She consults regularly on conflict resolution interventions, training, program evaluation and systems design for a range of public and private sector clients.

 

 

This workshop brings together research and practice on negotiation and mediation and share vital knowledge between mediators and mediation advocates. Workshop presentations and exercises will focus on the new skills, knowledge, and sensitivities of “conflict resolution advocacy”, viewed from the perspective of both counsel and mediators. It will combine presentations on empirical research from Macfarlane’s book with discussion and interactive exercises examining the practical demands of effective consensus-building, whether as an advocate or a third party. 

 

Through presentation of up-to-date research findings, interactive discussions and skills exercises this workshop will ask:

 

Ø      How is conflict resolution advocacy different – and how is it the same – as advocacy to a decision-maker?

Ø      What are the characteristics of effective mediation advocates, and what behavior and thinking limits their effectiveness?

Ø      How do mediation advocates work with their clients to ensure that they maximize client voice and negotiation power?

Ø      How do lawyers and clients make wise and co-operative decisions over negotiation/ mediation strategy, process, and settlement offers?

Ø      How can mediators reinforce and support the “new lawyer” in mediation?

Ø      How do mediators manage less experienced counsel who are accustomed to positional negotiation rather than problem-solving?

Ø      What do we know about what mediation advocates say that they want and need from mediators?

Ø      How can mediators work with advocates and their clients to help them to achieve the best possible outcomes?

 

A 1965 Rhodes College graduate, Jocelyn Wurzburg became a civic and political activist. But when Dr. King was assassinated in 1968, she focused on race relations, starting the Memphis Panel of American Women. In 1969, she led a women’s march on City Hall demanding the city and the sanitation workers avert a second strike. This civil rights activity led to her appointment to the Tennessee Human Rights Commission by Gov. Dunn in 1972. Upon learning the THRC had no enforceable anti-discrimination law, she wrote one covering employment and public accommodations.

 

This process inspired law school, but her studies were interrupted by President Ford’s appointing her to the International Women’s Year Commission and Secretary William Coleman’s appointment to the Minority Resource Center of the Federal Railroad Administration.

 

Graduating in 1980, Wurzburg associated with an estate firm to handle their “other cases” – which meant divorces. Litigation’s hurtful affect on children led Wurzburg to start her own firm and become Memphis’ first professional mediator in 1984. She is a Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31 listed mediator and trainer and is designated an Advanced Practitioner by the Association of Conflict Resolution.

 

A founding member of the AWA, T-LAW, and the Mediation Association of Tennessee, Wurzburg is former president of the MBA Family Law and ADR sections. She retired from law practice in 2005, but continues to mediate family law cases, work place disputes for the EEOC and Postal Service, and ADA claims for the Department of Justice.

 

Three years ago, Governor Bredesen re-appointed Wurzburg to the Tennessee Human Rights Commission; thus she is now helping to enforce a law she wrote 40 years ago.