Monthly NYC-DR Roundtable Breakfast
A PANEL DISCUSSION:
RESPONDING TO THE MEDIA WHEN CONFIDENTIALITY IS AT STAKE
Panelists as of 2/18/13:
RUSS BLEEMER, EDITOR, CPR ALTERNATIVES
JAMES P. KINNEY, FMCS COMMISSIONER
REINALDO RIVERA, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY RELATIONS SERVICE, DOJ
LINDA SACHS, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, CCRB
With limited mandated reporting exceptions, Mediators, Attorneys and Therapists are all committed to confidentiality with regard to client communication. Yet there are times when sharing information gleaned in privilieged communication can actually help a client or a professional colleague.
In today's 24/7 news cycle, reporters are hungry for new items to report. Their means for getting new information can be very aggressive and deadline driven.
What policies and procedures do various agencies and private practitioners have in place to assure that confidentiality is not breached and what kinds of support do practitioners have when it feels wrong not to share information that can help an individual? Is there ever an occasion when suspension of confidentiality is appropriate?
Come hear this exciting group of panelists discuss this difficult issue:
RUSS BLEEMER is the editor of CPR’s monthly newsletter on business conflict resolution, Alternatives, produced by CPR Institute and Jossey-Bass, a unit of John Wiley & Sons. In his role as Alternatives editor, Mr. Bleemer reports on practices and issues of
concern to business, law firms, government, and the courts. He has analyzed the conflict resolution implications of a wide variety of legal world events and trends, including the ADR aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, business issues faced by ADR providers, and changing disclosure requirements for law firms and neutrals practitioners.
Mr. Bleemer also is editor of Mediation: Approaches & Insights (Juris Publishing 2005). He and Alternatives have received nine national awards for newsletter writing and reporting since 2005 from the ASBPE, the Specialized Information Publishers Foundation, the Society of National Association Publications, and the Apex Awards for Publication Excellence.
Previously he was law editor for New Jersey Law Journal and an associate at a New York firm. Mr. Bleemer is longtime Program Coordinator of Monday Night Law, a free legal clinic at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, which provides advice to more than 1,000 needy New Yorkers annually. He recruits and oversees training for about 100 volunteers, and was part of the group that started the program in 1991. He is the former chair and former secretary of the bar committee that sponsors the program, the Committee for Legal Services for Persons of Moderate Means. Mr. Bleemer is an honors graduate of the George Washington Law School in Washington, D.C., and Marietta College, in Marietta, Ohio.
JAMES P. KINNEY is an FMCS Commissioner. He has been a Federal Mediator since February 2003. He has mediated labor disputes in the federal and private sectors, including the healthcare, manufacturing, maritime and shipping, higher education, retail and sales, communication, transportation and chemical industries. He has also conducted numerous trainings in Conflict Resolution, Negotiations, and Mediation, to unionized workplaces and handled numerous grievance mediations, workplace and EEO mediations. James has also taught labor relations and negotiations courses at the Rutgers University, NJ Labor Mgt. Center, Columbia University, NY, and Middlesex County College in Edison, NJ. He has also been a volunteer community mediator at IMCR, Bronx, NY, NYPD Civilian Complaint Review Board, and the NJ municipal courts.
Prior to being appointed to the FMCS, James spent 20 years with the United States Postal Service where he spent over 14 years as a union advocate and officer holding many local union positions including Vice President and Arbitration Advocate. He holds a B.A. in Labor Studies from Antioch University at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, and an M.A. in Conflict Resolution from Antioch University, Yellow Spring, OH.
REINALDO RIVERA, JR. is the Regional Director of the Northeast/Caribbean Region of the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service (CRS). The Community Relations Service, a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, is the federal government’s “peacemaker” for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Mr. Rivera first joined was appointed Regional Director of the Northeast/Caribbean Region in 2001.
With more than 45years of public service leadership in dispute resolution, mediation, and peacemaking, Mr. Rivera is dedicated to crisis management work in multi-cultural contexts. Prior to joining CRS, Mr. Rivera served for more than ten as a senior faculty member in the Antioch University Graduate Program in Cambridge, MA. He has also served as the Coalition Resource Advisor to fight the harms of substance abuse in cities for Join Together, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, at the Boston University School of Public Health. Mr. Rivera has been recognized for Outstanding Leadership and Public Service, by the Lincoln-Filene Center, at Tufts University, Medford, MA. Mr. Rivera holds advanced degrees in Social Policy from Harvard University and a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from Middlebury College in Vermont.
LINDA SACHS has served as the Director of Communications for the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board since September 2010. Before joining the CCRB, Ms. Sachs was a television news producer who specialized in hidden camera and other investigative stories. Prior to her twelve year career as a journalist, she was a press officer and spokesperson for law enforcement and consumer protection agencies.
