The focus of this edition of “Meet Our Mediators,” Jeff Fleming learned the importance of trust and credibility first as a trial lawyer and then as Orange County and Ninth Circuit Judge. Resident in our Maitland office, he has developed a devoted statewide following as mediator, arbitrator, special magistrate, umpire and guardian ad litem. In each role, Jeff draws on his past experience as lawyer and judge; but that was not the future he saw when he first started college.

"In this installment, we have the pleasure of presenting Ricardo Cata, who, before joining Upchurch Watson White & Max, served as a trial lawyer in South Florida for 38 years. Ricardo mediates a variety of personal injury and commercial civil litigation matters including cross border disputes that are in litigation or international arbitration. Spending a few minutes with Ricardo, you will see that he is genuine. Spending even more time with him will reveal a thread that runs through both his personal and professional life – an aptitude for staying focused on the goal even when it is difficult to persevere. And this serves him well and by extension those for whom he mediates.

Lawrence Kolin has a distinguished career in Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has been a professional neutral for over 15 years and has served as an arbitrator, mediator, and as a General Magistrate in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. Through his bar association work he chaired the effort to modernize Florida Civil Procedure Rules to include E-Discovery. He has also been a member of the faculty at the Advanced Judicial College, Bench Bar conference, and The Masters Conference for Legal Professionals. You may have seen his articles in the Orange County Bar Association Briefs. He is also the author of the officially listed ABA Journal "Blawg" Orlando Mediator (www.abajournal.com/blawg/Orlando_Mediator).

In this blog, UWWM Principal Kimberly Sands introduces Central Florida Mediator K. Judith (Judi) Lane. "I had the pleasure of first mediating with Judi early in my career as a mediator. She was one of the most impressive negotiators I had ever seen," Kimberly says. "She was prepared, knowledgeable, tenacious, and well-informed about the interests of her client. Just as importantly, she was fully aware of the interests of the opposing parties that could affect their decision-making. It was clear she knew precisely how to use mediation and the mediator to the best advantage for her client."

"Mediation allows me to use skills and experience in a new way as a neutral. I firmly believe that clients should be encouraged to try to resolve their disputes through negotiation rather than leave their fate to a judge and jury. Mediators can help parties and their counsel to look past the heat of the moment, evaluate a case with a more objective eye, and reach an immediate resolution so that the parties can return to their everyday lives. While it’s often said that a good mediation settlement leaves everyone a bit unhappy, I have yet to see that actually happen. What I have seen both as a mediator and as a participating attorney when I was practicing law, at the successful conclusion of mediation everyone lets out a sigh of relief that the case is resolved, that there are no unknowns or what-ifs about the result, and that everyone can move on."

In this installment of “Meet Our Mediators”, we learn more about Carl Schwait. Familiar to many of you, Carl joined us recently after a 39-year career as an accomplished personal injury trial attorney and has added to both our professional and geographic scope. Having benefited from the opportunities to learn from one of Florida’s preeminent trial attorneys, Joe Wilcox, the last 26 years saw Carl represent the defense in every manner of personal injury case. Carl’s dedication to the profession also has opened doors, both to serve and to teach.

The second installment of Meet Our Mediators, written in October 2016, focuses on Albert R. Tetrault, who died in December 2018. He had a wealth of experience outside the legal field and as a mediator. He joined the UWWM panel earlier in 2016. He had been a pilot and an Air Force officer. He flew a tour of duty in Vietnam. He had an MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked for named players in the computer industry, including a stint as CEO at a startup internet company. Given his decades of work outside the field of litigation, we asked Al to share with us some of his background and experience.

"As we will present our newest panelists first, we begin with Florida State College of Law Dean Emeritus Donald J. “Don” Weidner. Dean Weidner, after a distinguished career in academia and educational leadership joined our team in August. Don has touched the lives of legal practitioners all over, thanks to a teaching career which has gone from being an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, to serving as associate professor at Cleveland State University, where he taught real estate taxation and finance among other thing, to his storied tenure at FSU, where he rose from being a visiting professor to serving as dean of the law school for almost 25 years. But what I find most fascinating and endearing is his unbridled optimism and well placed confidence. How else can you describe someone who thinks it’s a good idea to buy a 36-foot sail boat, before knowing how to sail, who then becomes a skilled and avid boater. He was not stricken with analysis paralysis, opened a door to an important part of his life, and has even written a short story about that first step. You can find it in the September 2014 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine."