While some announcements are still under embargo, here's what we can say so far.

"The meeting was attended by 65 class action lawyers from around the country, who met to discuss current trends in the law and how court ruling will affect the practice," said mediator Steven Jaffe, who spoke to the group on behalf of UWWM and explained the mediation firm's experience and expertise in mediating  class action cases.

As a silver-level sponsor of the event, Upchurch Watson White & Max underwrote the opening cocktail reception at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.

Howard R. Marsee, a mediator with Upchurch Watson White & Max since 2001, is set to speak at the 26th annual conference presented by the Florida Dispute Resolution Center in Orlando Aug. 9 to 11, 2018. More than 900 dispute resolution professionals may attend this year's conference at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes "to enhance their knowledge, sharpen their skills and network with colleagues from across the state." Seminars such as Howard's will provide Continuing Mediation Education (CME) credits required to maintain Florida Supreme Court certification as a mediator.

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.

In the Spring 2018 issue of The Professional, the newsletter of the Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism, mediator/arbitrator Lawrence Kolin describes some challenges to arbitration's status as "an efficient process with finality" and the ways that professionalism could remedy the perceived ills of the process.

Florida mediator Richard S. "Dick" Graham has a big week ahead of him. He will appear with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King -- previously honored for “Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America” -- for at least two Daytona Beach-area events. The two men will launch a national tour promoting Mr. King's latest book at the Friends of the Daytona Beach Regional Library’s 38th annual Author Fundraising Event on Wednesday, May 9, at the News-Journal Center, 221 N. Beach St., Daytona Beach.

Bob Cole is a great source of insight on the differences and similarities between settlement conferences and civil mediations. He recently participated in a panel exploring how to get the most out of each proceeding.

Mediator Carl Schwait, recipient of The Florida Bar’s G. Kirk Haas Humanitarian Award, recently selected a deserving law student and awarded the associated Haas scholarship to him during the All Rise Program on Student Wellness and Mental Health at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

"Open Ninth" is part of a new communications plan put in place by the Florida Supreme Court that seeks to better connect the courts with citizens. Lawrence discusses his experience as a mediator and the important role of mediation as an effective tool of alternative dispute resolution in the justice system.