The Working Group II (Dispute Resolution) of the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) met in February to complete its work on the drafts of the instruments. That should be exciting to dispute resolution professionals because the end result may be significant growth of international commercial mediation.

Florida Mediator Robert A. "Bob" Cole recently participated in a panel discussion titled "Freshwater Fishing in the Ocean – Using ADR in Administrative Law" for the 2018 National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary Annual Conference.Bob, a shareholder with Upchurch Watson White & Max who has been part of its mediation panel since 2012, discussed this role for alternative dispute resolution with a Stetson University College of Law professor, a chief administrative law judge form Maryland and chief of staff for the Florida Department of Health.

April Y. Walker, a respected Central Florida litigator, has become the newest member of Upchurch Watson White & Max Mediation Group's panel of neutrals. Ms. Walker has statewide ties as a native of Miami and a graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville. Additionally, she began her litigation career at Carlton, Fields, Ward, Emmanuel, Smith & Cutler (now Carlton Fields Jorden Burt) in Tampa in 1997. She left the practice to clerk for U.S. District Judge Stephan P. Mickle in the Northern District of Florida but returned to the firm's Orlando office in 2008. She was an associate litigation attorney until she was elected a shareholder in 2015.