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of Interest
Articles
"Neighborhood Restorative
Justice Initiatives"
ACR Chicago Program
September 26, 2002
By Danielle Loevy
Sharon Covey-Sink, Executive Director of Bloom Township Youth
and Family Services, and Director and co-founder of the Neighborhood
Restorative Justice Mediation Project (“NRJM”),
gave a passionate and informative presentation about the development
and value of restorative justice. Restorative Justice mediation,
she explained, is a community-based alternative wherein the
victim of a crime and the offender join together with a representative
of the community (the volunteer mediator) to restore losses
to the victim and allow the offender to accept responsibility
and become an integrated member of their community. At present,
restorative justice mediation (known as “conferencing”
in restorative justice lingo) is primarily practiced with
juveniles as an alternative process to the criminal justice
system. The program has had great success since its inception
ten years ago beginning in Markham. Now, such mediations take
place in several other community locations, including Rolling
Meadows, Skokie, and Maywood.
As explained in NRJM’s brochure, “the Restorative
Justice approach is founded upon the belief that justice is
best served when the victim, the juvenile offender, and the
community receive equal attention.” Ms. Covey-Sink stressed
that the way the criminal justice system works now, none of
the above interests are truly being served. The victim rarely
participates in the proceedings nor has a voice, the offender
usually has a lawyer who speaks on his or her behalf, and
the community is not represented at all. She stated that the
restorative justice approach is not meant to replace the criminal
justice system, but it is meant to alleviate its burden by
resolving those cases that perhaps ought not be in the system
in the first place.
Other restorative justice processes include circle support,
circle sentencing, community conferencing, and family conferencing.
Ms. Covey-Sink concluded by saying that restorative justice
“is here to stay” and that there are and will
be many opportunities to facilitate and mediate these types
of cases. All potential volunteers for NRJM must attend the
40-hour training program through St. Xaviar College. For more
information, Ms. Covey-Sink can be reached at (708)754-9400.
Danielle Loevy is an attorney, mediator,
ACR-Chicago Secretary, and the Chair of its Public Awareness
Committee.
"Charting A Course
Into The Dispute Resolution Field"
BY THOMAS F. GIBBONS
There is no doubt that there are too many part-time mediators
and arbitrators in the field of dispute resolution. This does
not mean that there are actually too many ADR professionals.
Only that there is not enough work to occupy the time of most
mediators and arbitrators on anything but a part-time basis.
In fact, "don't give up your day job," is the industry
joke when asked by newcomers interested in making ADR a career.
Still, this growing field is providing more and more opportunities
for full-time employment, whether working for a governmental
agency or building a solo practice. But to become involved
in this field takes planning.
My recommendation to anyone is to create a business plan
that sets out your goals over the next five years. Truthfully,
very few individuals other than a few well-known judges and
attorneys have ever hung out a shingle and spontaneously enjoyed
a robust ADR practice. On occasion, I have even questioned
the veracity of some of those judges and attorneys when they
have bragged that business couldn't be better. Remember one
of the ADR truisms of business development: Nobody wants a
mediator or arbitrator with too many free days.
For those who are thinking about ADR as a career, the first
question you should ask is what kind of practice do you wish
to create. Many professionals with some content expertise
often make the mistake of narrowly defining their practice,
such as a labor lawyer seeking to follow the traditional route
of becoming a labor arbitrator. Think more broadly. Create
multiple revenue streams to help sustain your practice. That
same labor lawyer should also think about employment mediation,
which is a growing area in the ADR field. That attorney could
also use those same mediation skills to resolve commercial
and community disputes. Fact-finding is another area that
is often overlooked. Teaching an ADR course at a local college
is also another route to consider.
Become involved in the field. There are a variety of worthwhile
professional organizations that you should consider joining,
not only to learn about the field's cutting-edge issues but
to meet other professionals also building practices. The ADR
committee/sections for the Illinois State Bar Association,
Chicago Bar Association and the American Bar Association are
very involved in the dispute resolution community. Also consider
joining the Association for Conflict Resolution, which has
a Chicago chapter and a national organization, (formerly the
Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, SPIDR), and
the Illinois Council of Mediators, which is the state's professional
group for family and divorce mediators.
Market yourself, as you would any business. Try some of the
following:
- Speak at as many forums as you can find. Typically, local
business groups and professional associations are always looking
for guest speakers at their events. Be their ADR expert.
- Write an article on ADR that you can send to potential
clients in the future. Again, bar associations, business groups
and local newspapers, to name only a few, are often looking
for material for their publications.
- Create a website that includes your background, your expertise
and articles you have written, even written arbitration decisions
if possible. If you are a mediator, you could also include
on your website your philosophy or approach to resolving conflict.
For example, tell prospective clients whether your approach
to mediation is facilitative or evaluative, or perhaps your
style is much more transformative.
- Advertise yourself in the Yellow Pages. The day is long
past that your ad for "mediation services" will
be posted under "meditation services."
- Volunteer your services. It's true that too many mediators
do themselves and the profession a disservice by regularly
giving away their service to entities that can afford to pay
for their time. However, volunteering your service to a local
church, school or some nonprofit organization to gain valuable
experience as a mediator makes a great deal of sense. You
should also remember that once your have become a success
you still owe a professional duty to give back some of your
time to these same kinds of groups and shame on you if you
can't find the time to do it. After all, it's some of the
most rewarding work you will ever do.
A common question that is asked is "how do I get my
first case." One approach is to find an experienced practitioner
who will allow you to assist them. Don't expect to be paid
for this, but be grateful for the experience. In mediation,
you need to find an experienced mediator who would allow you
along with the parties to co-mediate a few cases. That would
provide you with some actual references from parties, which
might be requested when you are approached to mediate a case
yourself. Some family and divorce mediators even charge a
fee to co-mediate some cases with apprentices.
Arbitration is a little more difficult. Some arbitrators,
with the approval of the parties, would allow an aspiring
neutral to observe an arbitration. Some might also allow you
to assist in the research and writing of an award, although
there is an ethical line as to when an award is no longer
the arbitrator's decision. Some arbitrators are very cautious
about this point and refuse to accept any assistance in the
writing of an award, while others see the difference between
research and editorial assistance, and abrogating the arbitrator's
evaluative and decision-making role.
Another place to gain experience is the Center for Conflict
Resolution in Chicago. CCR is a well-respected non-profit
organization that provides participants in their program with
an opportunity to volunteer their time to mediate community
cases that have been referred by the courts or have come through
the front door.
Increasingly, there are also full-time ADR employment opportunities.
On the most part, these jobs are in the public sector, especially
with the federal government that has been aggressively launching
dispute resolution initiatives. Agencies such as the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Postal Service,
the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, to name only
a few, employ individuals full-time to serve as neutrals and/or
manage and oversee their ADR efforts. There are also more
and more ADR programs being established in the state and federal
courts around the country, which also need people to administer
these initiatives.
Many of these opportunities simply did not exist 10 years
ago. In fact, many of them were not available even five years
ago. Today, the field of dispute resolution is growing and
the opportunities for a career in ADR are also growing. Still,
it takes good business planning, networking and plenty of
patience.
Thomas Gibbons, an attorney,
mediator and labor arbitrator, is dean of Northwestern University's
School of Continuing Studies, and a senior lecturer with Northwestern's
School of Law. He is the current president of the Association
for Conflict Resolution, Chicago Chapter.
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