5 Mediation Mistakes that Create Obstacles to Settlement

Hon. Lynn O’Malley Taylor | JAMS

Hon. Lynn O’Malley Taylor (Ret.) joins JAMS as a full-time neutral, bringing over 35 years’ experience as a trial court judge. In 1982, Judge Taylor was the first woman elected to the court in Marin County. She has served three times as presiding judge. In addition, Judge Taylor has served in Contra Costa, Sonoma, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento, and Orange counties and for the last seven years in the San Francisco Superior Court as part of the Judicial Council’s Assigned Judges Program.

As supervising civil law judge in Marin County, Judge Taylor eliminated the court’s civil backlog by settling old cases and managing the remaining cases on realistic time schedules. She encouraged mediation and required settlement conferences for all cases that did not settle in mediation. She settled hundreds of cases in partnership with mediation trained attorneys and experts. While serving in San Francisco, she settled numerous cases assigned to her at the request of other judges. Treating all with dignity and kindness, Judge Taylor has well-deserved respect from the lawyers and litigants who have appeared before her. She approaches each matter that comes before her with optimism and persistence.

Judge Taylor continues to share her expertise serving as faculty in judicial/legal education programs, including Stanford University Law School, University of San Francisco Law School and the California Judicial College. Most recently she taught a course on Advanced Settlement Conferences at the Center for Judicial Education and Research.

Rachel Gupta | Gupta Dispute Resolutions LLC

Ms. Gupta has her own ADR practice, Gupta Dispute Resolutions LLC, where she serves as a mediator, arbitrator, and legal consultant to businesses. In addition to her private practice, she is currently a mediator for various state and federal court ADR panels in New York and is an arbitrator and panelist for CPR, the American Arbitration Association, and FINRA. She is a 2021 recipient of the JAMS Diversity Fellowship. Prior to becoming an ADR professional, Ms. Gupta was an experienced litigator in New York City, specializing in complex commercial, securities, financial, and employment litigation. She spent nearly a decade as in-house counsel, first as Assistant General Counsel for a public corporation and then as Senior Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for an investment management firm. Prior to her time as in-house counsel, Ms. Gupta worked as a litigation associate at New York law firms DLA Piper LLP and Seward & Kissel LLP.

Her years of experience as both outside counsel and then in-house counsel, advocating for both plaintiffs and defendants, gives her a unique perspective of the law, as well as the corporate goals and processes that often motivate and sometimes prolong litigation. She now brings this vast legal experience to help companies and individuals find alternative solutions to litigation through mediation, arbitration, and negotiation. She received her Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law and her undergraduate degree in Psychology from The George Washington University. She is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

I. Mediation process | 1:00 pm – 1:45 pm

II. Understanding the benefits that mediation provides clients, to recognizing how participants’ own behavior can impact the ultimate outcome at mediation (Part I) | 1:45 pm -2:00 pm

Break | 2:00 pm – 2:10 pm

III. Understanding the benefits that mediation provides clients, to recognizing how participants’ own behavior can impact the ultimate outcome at mediation (Part II) | 2:10 pm – 2:30 pm

IV. Practical advice to help maximize the chances for a negotiated agreement | 2:30 pm – 3:10 pm