I hear all that time that there are only a handful of good employment mediators, that they’re expensive, and that they’re booked out for months. This is an unfortunate misimpression that arises out of the way most mediators get selected.
Lawyers pick mediators. Lawyers are risk averse and busy. So they take the fastest route to the safest answer, which usually means asking a colleague down the hall: do you know so-and-so? When I did this at my firm, I usually got nothing back. Or I got something useless, like “I went to law school with him, he’s a good guy.”
That is not a good way to select an effective mediator. It may not even be enough to satisfy your client that you’ve done your diligence. What it reliably is is a great way to ensure that the same few mediators are selected over and over again. Yes, they are excellent, but the practice leaves a deep bench of other excellent mediators underutilized, particularly those from diverse backgrounds.
The truth is that there are many effective, productive, efficient employment mediators out there, and they are available.
Finding them
Treat selecting a mediator like any other research project you tackle. Start with a broad approach. Court rosters are online and freely accessible. PACER can be useful too (EDNY lists mediator names on docket sheets). The New York City Bar maintains a directory of diverse neutrals on its website; the New York State Bar Association has that directory plus a searchable directory of neutrals on its ADR Section page. AAA Panel mediators are now public on the AAA’s website – and the directory is easily searchable. Professional organizations and their listservs are a resource. So are friends and colleagues outside your own firm, law school professors who teach ADR, court and personnel. Widen your net!
