In 2018, the California Supreme Court drastically changed the employment law landscape in California by adopting the “ABC Test” for determining whether workers are employees ( and not independent contractors) under California wage order laws: Under this test, a worker is properly considered an independent contractor to whom a wage order does not apply only [...]
There is one thing about lawyers: they can be very creative. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in late April that, while having absolutely nothing to with mediation except to encourage brainstorming and “out of the box” thinking, is worth noting. So- spoiler alert- this blog has nothing to do with mediation [...]
In 2017, I posted a blog entitled, “A Bias I Never Thought About” which discussed an implicit bias against hair styles, most notably, Afros, Dreads, Twists, and Braids. It was based on a lecture given by Professor Wendy Green who is an expert on discrimination based on hair style. This all came back to me [...]
The Cambridge online dictionary defines “mediator” as “…a person who tries to end a disagreement by helping the two sides to talk about and agree on a solution.” Implied in this is that the mediator will be kind, helpful, friendly, respectful, and any other positive trait necessary to build trust and a relationship with the parties. The adage that “you catch more [...]
A great fear of mine is that with the blossoming of artificial intelligence (AI), my skills as a mediator will be replaced by a robot. This fear crept into my conscious again upon reading an article posted by Nick Hilborne on February 19, 2019 entitled , “Robot Mediator settle first ever court case.” Evidently, in [...]
Originally published in Law360, April 9, 2019 Typically, if a matter settles at mediation, the parties will enter into a settlement agreement then and there to ensure that the matter has indeed settled; there will be no buyer’s remorse or change of mind the next morning. Often included are provisions that the settlement agreement may [...]
The other day I stumbled upon a tweet mentioning a “velvet hammer”. Wondering what it was, I googled the reference and came upon an article discussing its meaning and use; Why the ‘velvet hammer’ is a better way to give constructive criticism by Stephanie Vozza. Taking issue with the what she calls the “sandwich method” [...]
Normally, if a matter settles at mediation, the parties will enter into a settlement agreement then and there to ensure that the matter has indeed settled; there will be no buyer’s remorse or change of mind the next morning. Often included within the settlement agreement are provisions that the settlement agreement may be enforced by [...]