Mediator Robert A. "Bob" Cole recently received the 2019 ABOTA Foundation Founders Award at the American Board of Trial Advocates National Board Meeting in California. The award is for an individual who has shown "exceptional vision and commitment to furthering the goals of the ABOTA Foundation."

Florida State University recently honored mediator Donald J. Wiedner as the faculty winner of the 2019 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award. Don is dean emeritus of the FSU College of Law and Alumni Centennial Professor as well as, since August 2016, a member of Upchurch Watson White & Max's panel of neutrals.

Albert R. Tetrault, a resident of Ormond Beach, Fla., and a mediator with Upchurch Watson White & Max since 2016, died Dec. 3, 2018, after a brief illness. He had a reputation as a lifelong learner and innovative thinker, and he will be missed by his UWWM colleagues and all those who mediated with him, in addition to those who knew him before he joined our panel.

Howard R. Marsee, mediator, arbitrator and special master with Upchurch Watson White & Max, has contributed an article titled "Reflections on Unprofessional Conduct: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going?" to the winter 2018 issue of The Professional, a triannual publication of the Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism of The Florida Bar.

Don Weidner, a UWWM mediator/arbitrator and dean emeritus of Florida State University College of Law, has added another scholarly work to his CV: he has published the 2018 edition of The Revised Uniform Partnership Act (with Bob Hillman and Allan Donn) (Thompson Reuters).  Don was the Reporter for RUPA, which has been adopted by a majority of the states, including Florida.

Mediator Robert A. "Bob" Cole recently received the Joseph P. Milton Civility Award from the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Upchurch Watson White & Max is a longtime supporter of ABOTA -- and, particularly the Florida chapter, FLABOTA, the largest ABOTA chapter in country, remaining today as an event sponsor.

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.

This week, shareholder Judy Bass, who was part of UWWM's original South Florida team, and mediator Art Garcia, who joined UWWM in October 2016, hosted our table, greeted clients and prospective clients and collected business cards for a drawing at this year's Meet and Greet.

At the end of August, as many of us prepared for a long Labor Day weekend, UWWM Mediator Ricardo Cata delivered CLE seminars, first in downtown Miami for the Miami-Dade Florida Association for Women Lawyers (MDFAWL) and then in Coral Gables for the Cuban American Bar Association (CABA). Ricardo's  presentation, "The Roles of Trial Counsel and In-House Counsel in Mediation" drew upon his years of experience representing resort and tour operators based in Latin America and many other clients in Florida’s circuit and federal courts, plus careful research of his topic.

Nine other UWWM attorney mediators in Florida and Alabama also are named in the upcoming edition of Best Lawyers®.