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Plenary sessions with Professor Ellen Waldman
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Podcasts, powerpoints and/or papers from the presentations are available to LEADR members and
Mediation ethics: a pluralistic account Mediation ethics entails weighing and balancing competing objectives. Codes of conduct the world over emphasise mediation's commitment to party self-determination, impartiality, informed consent and procedural justice. In the easy case, all of these values fall into perfect alignment. In harder cases, these values emerge in tension with one another. In this interactive session, Professor Waldman will suggest that "doing" mediation ethics means acknowledging that hard cases force the realisation that we cannot simultaneously advance all of mediation's aspirational values in every dispute. Rather, mediation model and case context dictate which values achieve prominence in any particular case. Rather than cling to the fiction that the threads of our ethical canons knit up seamlessly, better to acknowledge a rough-hewn quilt of varying texture and hue. Determining which features of the fabric to highlight and display is a matter of careful deliberation and nuanced judgment. Getting clear on one's ideological commitments within the mediation process constitutes an important first step. This session will include a highly interactive segment in which participants will actively engage with these issues. Podcast: Listen to Ellen talk about this session pre-'kon gres (8 mins) >> Friday, 2.45pm Impartiality and outcomes: What if the tie is not to the party, but to the subject matter in dispute? Is impartiality an achievable stance for mediators to assume? Is it even desirable, given that many ethical codes also call for a process that strives toward fair and equitable outcomes? How can mediators pledge to avoid undue substantive influence on the direction and movement of party discussion, while also committing to "fairness" interventions, such as power-balancing and withdrawal in the face of "unconscionable" outcomes? Clearly, mediators should avoid giving in to personal biases and stereotypes- but how does the commandment to remain impartial restrict mediator movement when considering party positions as opposed to relationships? Podcast: Listen to Ellen talk about this session pre-'kon gres (8 mins) >> Podcast: Find out more about Ellen Waldman and her interest in ethics. (14 mins) >> |
Thursday, 9.10am
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Ellen grew up around an hour outside of New York City, but, in the course of her schooling and work as an attorney and academic, has lived in virtually every region (South, Midwest) of the country and now makes her home in Southern California. She loves to play tennis and runs the occasional 5 or 10km with her 11 year old daughter who is fiercely competitive (at least with her mom). An English major and fond reader of Victorian novels, Ellen was first introduced to Australia by Charles Dickens who sent his most vivid characters to that wide, open continent to be enriched and transformed. She is delighted to make that same voyage herself and looking to be enlightened by discussions at 'kon gres and beyond.
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Professor Ellen Waldman
L.M., University of Virginia in Mental Health Law, with an emphasis in Conflict Resolution;
J.D., New York University;
B.A., Brown University, magna cum laud
Ellen Waldman is Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego. Following law school, Professor Waldman clerked for the Honorable Myron Bright of the Eighth Circuit in Fargo, North Dakota, and joined a litigation firm in Washington, D.C., specializing in insurance defense. While practicing in Washington, D.C., Professor Waldman received mediation training and subsequently was awarded a scholarship in 1990 to pursue an LL.M. in this area.
While pursuing her LL.M. degree, she was a fellow at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy in Charlottesville, Virginia. The following year she served as a fellow at the medical ethics department at the University of Virginia Medical School and directed a grant awarded by the Virginia Institute for the Humanities to educate hospital staff and patients about patient rights and principles of biomedical ethics.
Prior to law school, Professor Waldman taught film and English at the American International School in Israel. A member of the Thomas Jefferson faculty since 1992, Professor Waldman founded and supervises the school’s mediation program, which affords students an opportunity to mediate disputes in small claims court. Additionally, she directs a government-sponsored grant that provides for student exposure to ADR techniques and mentoring within the ADR community. Professor Waldman speaks, trains and publishes in the areas of mediation and medical ethics.
Professor Waldman edited the recently published book: Mediation Ethics: Cases and Commentaries. See below.
Reviewed by The Hon Murray Kellam AO, click here >>
About Mediation Ethics: Cases and Commentaries
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Publishing date: March 2011
Editor: Ellen Waldman
Commentaries by:
Format: Hardcover, 464pp
ISBN: 978-0-7879-9588-1
Distributed in Australia by John Wiley & Sons Australia.
More details on the publication, click here >>
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