ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST:RESPECT MATTERS: How Procedural Fairness Can Improve Client Engagement and Public Trust

ACR-GNY & CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College present:

RESPECT MATTERS:

HOW PROCEDURAL FAIRNESS CAN IMPROVE CLIENT ENGAGEMENT AND PUBLIC TRUST

Kate Wurmfeld, Director of Family Court Programs

Center for Court innovation

This presentation will provide a framework for improving access to justice in mediation cases through a procedural fairness lens. The discussion will focus on the research underlying procedural fairness, contextualizing these concepts within the realities of mediation and providing practical tools for overcoming the challenges to delivering procedural justice to all clients.  This will be an interactive session, where participants will be asked to provide examples of procedural fairness from their own work.  They will also be asked to identify challenges to delivering procedural fairness and suggest unique strategic solutions, based on the information presented, to implement in their own practice and across the systems in which they work. 

KATE WURMFELD, Esq., is the Director of Family Court Programs at the Center for Court Innovation (CCI).  In this role, Kate provides oversight for CCI’s family court operating projects, as well as training, technical assistance and strategic planning advice to courts around the country wishing to enhance their response to domestic violence and child related relief.  Kate has extensive experience providing direct legal services on cases involving domestic violence, most recently as a supervising attorney for Matrimonial and Family Law at New York Legal Assistance Group, where she handled divorce, custody, orders of protection and support matters in Supreme and Family Court throughout NYC.  In addition to providing direct legal services, Kate also provided supervision to staff attorneys, law students and volunteers, taught clinical seminars and provided training for outside organizations, community groups and law firms.  Kate has also served as Co-chair for the Lawyers Committee Against Domestic Violence, where she was active in planning the annual Fordham Forum on Domestic Violence, as well as other professional trainings, and promoting legislative and policy initiatives impacting survivors of domestic violence.  Kate graduated from Seton Hall Law School and Oberlin College.