The Florida Bar News recently quoted Upchurch Watson White & Max mediators, who are well represented among the leadership of the Bar's Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, in a story explaining why the section has recommended that all who mediate disputes filed in the state's family and circuit civil courts be certified by the Florida Supreme Court. “As professional mediators, we believe that if there are people out there mediating ­— serving our courts, serving the public, serving our judges, our judicial system — there needs to be some level of competence and understanding of the ethical rules and some control over those people,” said Bob Cole, a UWWM shareholder and the section's chair-elect.

Mediation topics will play a big part in a timely "Professionalism in Negotiation" seminar presented by the Professionalism & Business Law Committees of the Orange County Bar Association. Two mediators with Upchurch Watson White & Max, Howard R. Marsee and Lawrence Kolin, will speak for the program, subtitled "Transactions, Litigation and Mediation," at the bar association's downtown center Thursday, Feb. 16.

At The Florida Bar's 2017 Winter Meeting, Robert A. "Bob" Cole of Upchurch Watson White & Max, along with fellow panel members David W. Henry and Mindy McLaughlin, presented a CLE seminar with a topic geared toward trial lawyers and a secondary goal of promoting relationships between the Bar's sections.

"For the mediator to be insensitive to the cultural or ethnic differences discussed here could result in missed opportunities," Ricardo Cata writes. "If the mediator recognizes cultural differences and learns how to address them, a new set of 'tools' becomes available."

"We are pleased to announce that your blog, Orlando Mediator, has taken 3rd place in the Legal News category of The Expert Institute's Best Legal Blog Contest for 2016! "

Renée Thompson and Carl Schwait, both mediators with Upchurch Watson White & Max, will present an hour-long program on lawyer advertising to the fellows of The Florida Bar's Wm. Reece Smith, Jr. Leadership Academy on Nov. 18 in Jacksonville.

Please choose mediator Lawrence Kolin's Orlando Mediator blog for The 2016 Best Legal Blog Contest put on by The Expert Institute. Now. Today. Early voting is now open.

As part of its push into North Central Florida, Upchurch Watson White & Max Mediation Group has opened a seventh Florida office here, in the landmark Concord Square Building, 7 East Silver Springs Boulevard, Suite 500, and has begun conducting mediations there. The new facility includes two updated conference rooms plus the office of Renée E. Thompson, a well-known Ocala litigator who joined UWWM as a mediator in May. Other panel members who reside within the region are Carl B. Schwait, who also joined the mediation group in May after serving as senior and managing partner for Gainesville law firm Dell Graham, P.A., and Brandon Peters, who came to UWWM in 2014 from his own independent Central Florida mediation practice.

For the second year running, the City of Orlando has proclaimed the third week in October Mediation Week. The theme of the observance is "Celebrating Mediation in All Its Diversity, highlighting the broad scope of mediation and its benefits."