section update
Dispute Resolution Section
By John F. Allgood
Ford Harrison
[email protected]
T
he Dispute Resolution Section of the Atlanta Bar is
composed of advocates, neutrals, service providers
and educators who are members of the Atlanta Bar
and who are regularly engaged in various alternative dispute
resolution practices including mediation, early evaluations
and arbitration. As the Dispute Resolution practices touch on
almost all of the other existing specialty practice areas, we
welcome the participation of and membership of all Atlanta
Bar members who have an interest in developments and the
practice of conflict resolution in forums other than litigation.
law students who have demonstrated top performance
demonstrated in DR at each of the Georgia law schools. The
DR Section welcomes any Atlanta Bar Association member
and encourages them to join our members in the coming year.
Each year the DR Section sponsors a series of breakfast
programs designed to present and address the expanding
issues and opportunities for lawyers engaged in ADR practices.
While Section breakfast meetings are regularly held on the first
Wednesday of each month beginning in the Fall, this year’s
programs will begin with a breakfast meeting on August 20
at 7:30 a.m. at the Buckhead Club. We are pleased to have
as the speaker on this occasion Harold Coleman, Jr., Senior
Vice President of the American Arbitration Association and the
Executive Director of Mediation.org, the mediation arm of the
AAA. At the August meeting, Coleman, as a representative of
one of the national mediation service providers, will discuss
some of the expanding opportunities for mediators and
lawyers engaged in a mediation practice. His comments
will include current developments and opportunities that are
occurring across the United States as well as some overview
of the new directions of mediation in the future that likely will
impact the legal practice – litigation as well as ADR -- overall.
Other programs that the Section has planned for the coming
year include a joint meeting with the Construction Section
of the Atlanta Bar in October to review new mediation and
arbitration rules having an impact on disputes in construction
law. Also planned for the coming year will be other joint
programs to be held with other Atlanta Bar Sections and
targeted to topics related to a the use of DR in particular
practice areas. The Section regularly publishes for our
members a newsletter of recent developments occurring in
the DR area in Georgia and nationally. Among other annual
activities and sponsorships, the DR Section each year also
provides a DR book award and recognition to graduating
54 THE ATLANTA LAWYER
June/July 2015
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association