2019 Mediation Settlement Day: The Multiplicity of Mediation

The Mediation Settlement Day is an annual event hosted by ACR-GNY that celebrates the importance and value of conflict resolution for the greater New York community. This year’s theme, The Multiplicity of Mediation, focuses on mediation adapted for various contexts including the United Nations, federal court programs, and community relations.

We're excited about the program this year! Through lively and energetic discussion, we'll celebrate the many contexts of mediation and their impact on conflict resolution, both as we know it now and in the coming years.

Please note: advance registration and proof of ID is required for security purposes. 

Keynote Speaker: Honorable Raymond E. Kramer, Executive Director of the Center for Creative Conflict Resolution at NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings

Frontline Champion: Rebecca Price, Director of ADR Programs at the US District Court of the Southern District of New York

Panelists: 

Please note: advance registration and proof of ID

is required for security purposes.

Honorable Raymond E. Kramer, Executive Director of the Center for Creative Conflict Resolution at NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings

Raymond E. Kramer is an administrative law judge at the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), where he serves as the Director of the Administrative Judicial Institute and the Executive Director of OATH’s Center for Creative Conflict Resolution. He is an experienced mediator and an adjunct clinical professor of law at New York University Law School, where he co-teaches the Mediation and Advanced Mediation: Dispute System Design Clinics. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, where he teaches Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management in the Human Resources Master’s Degree program, and New York University’s Wagner School, where he teaches Negotiation. For the past two summers, he has taught Conflict Resolution at Beijing’s University of International Relations. He is the President of the New York State Administrative Law Judge’s Association (NYSALJA) and a member of the New York City Bar Association.

Matthew Lattimer, Conciliation Specialist at the US Department of Justice, Community Relations Service

Matthew T. Lattimer is a graduate of Columbia College, Columbia University in the City of New York with an AB in history and holds a law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. While in law school, he was part of a mediation clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, he also had held internships at the United Nations with the Economic and Social Council and with Robert P. Patterson, Senior U.S.D.J. in the Southern District of New York. He has been a Conciliation Specialist with the United States Department of Justice Community Relations Service since 2008.

The Community Relations Service is the Department's "peacemaker" for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, and national origin. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, CRS is the only Federal agency dedicated to assist State and local units of government, private and public organizations, and community groups with preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, incidents, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony.

With passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, CRS also works with communities to employ strategies to prevent and respond to alleged violent hate crimes committed on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or disability. CRS facilitates the development of viable, mutual understandings and agreements as alternatives to coercion, violence, or litigation. It also assists communities in developing local mechanisms, conducting training, and other proactive measures to prevent racial/ethnic tension and violent hate crimes committed on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability. Before coming to the Department of Justice he worked as an account manager at LexisNexis--the legal, news and public records database where he was responsible for the account management, training and marketing of large national and regional law firms in New York City.

Deborah Mendez, Director of Mediation at the Office of the UN Ombuds and Mediation Services at Headquarters

Deborah Mendez took up her functions as Director of Mediation on 1 October 2012, after having served as Senior Mediator in the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services at Headquarters since July 2010.

Before joining the United Nations, Ms. Mendez was managing director and founding partner of the Institute for Dispute Resolution Ltd., a private firm in Trinidad and Tobago. In this role, she was involved in mediating workplace issues, cases related to family and divorce, as well as community, commercial and court-referred disputes.

Ms. Mendez is an attorney-at-law with more than 20 years of experience in informal dispute resolution and specific expertise in the design and implementation of conflict resolution systems. Throughout her career she has trained judges, lawyers, court staff and senior executives in the public and private sector, and consulted for several international organizations, including the United States Agency for International Development, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the International Labour Organization, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and the Carter Center.

In addition to having extensive professional experience in mediation, both in the private and public sectors, Ms. Mendez holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of the West Indies and a Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts, United States, which she obtained as a Fulbright scholar. She has received formal training in the mediation of labour and workplace disputes, arbitration, negotiation and executive mediation. She is a member of the International Ombudsman Association.

Rebecca Price, Director of ADR Programs at the US District Court of the Southern District of New York

Rebecca Price is the Director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Program at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Prior to this position she directed the Mediation Clinic at Brooklyn Law School, was a Supervising Attorney in the Mediation Clinic at CUNY School of Law, and taught ADR at the New York University School of Continuing Professional Studies. Rebecca has also taught lawyering/legal writing and interviewing and counseling at Cardozo Law School, and was supervising attorney in the Economic Justice Program at CUNY School of Law. Rebecca is the former Coordinator of the Special Education/Early Intervention and ACCES VR Mediation Programs for Safe Horizon Mediation Program (now the New York Peace Institute). Before turning her focus to ADR, Rebecca was the Assistant Director of Visual AIDS, created and oversaw the Children’s Mental Health Project at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and was a Senior Attorney in the Special Litigation and Appeals Unit of Mental Hygiene Legal Service. Rebecca is certified as an Initial Mediation Trainer for the Community Dispute Resolution Centers Program of the Unified Court System of the State of New York. Rebecca currently teaches an ADR Survey at New York University School of Law and is a frequent speaker and trainer about mediation, conflict resolution, and communication. Rebecca was named as one of the 2017 honorees for Distinguished Leadership as part of the New York Law Journal’s Professional Excellence Awards. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and a much adored dog.