Upchurch Watson White & Max is wrapping up Mediation Week by offering yet another complimentary resource on its Website. The most recent addition is an e-book, How to Select the Best Mediator, written by UWWM Dispute Resolution Counsel Brandon Peters. This e-book contains valuable input from other highly-experienced legal professionals.

Robert A. Cole, a shareholder with Upchurch Watson White & Max, became "one of the few" special masters in the state to conduct a federal foreclosure auction as he completed a $70 million real and personal property sale today on the steps of the Orange County Courthouse. Ordinarily, a U.S. Marshal would conduct such an auction, but the parties to a lawsuit captioned Grande Palisades Loan Holdings LLC v. Lake Austin Properties I Ltd. agreed to the appointment of a special master to hasten the process. "It's an honor to be appointed a special master in order to assist the court and the parties in moving the case forward procedurally and ultimately to final resolution," Mr. Cole said.

Two Upchurch Watson White & Max shareholders have become deeply involved in the upcoming observation of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution's Mediation Week 2014 -- Oct. 12 to 18. Also, a UWWM mediator will be a panelist at a Miami Mediation Week event on Oct. 16, and another has organized a complimentary educational Webinar. Richard Lord, a shareholder with the group, became co-chair of the ABA section's Mediation Committee and took part in regional outreach for the section as it encouraged and coordinated promotion of the week's activities.

Case information provided to a mediator before a mediation conference can be cryptic, incomplete and highly positional. Mediators need quality input to formulate an effective strategy for settling a case to the satisfaction of the parties. Even the most experienced professional neutral cannot achieve a meaningful understanding of the litigants, their interests, and the fundamentals of a dispute from a single-page letter summary. Hence, the importance of pre-mediation submissions. Shave many hours off of the time normally required to produce such a document with the aid of our template.

Seven UWWM attorney-mediators in Florida and Alabama were selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2015. Rodney A. Max, a principal with the firm, additionally was named Best Lawyers' 2014-'15 Mediation "Lawyer of the Year" in two different metropolitan areas.

Attorneys can benefit from the free resources available on the UWWM website, and we've just added an important tool: a SWOT Analysis Template, which UWWM Dispute Resolution Counsel Brandon Peters created with extensive input from other highly-experienced legal professionals. SWOT Analysis is a useful tool for understanding the relative Strengths and Weaknesses of your client’s case and for identifying both the Options available to your client and the Truths the disputants must confront to make informed decisions about alternative courses of action.

From left, Nancy LaVista, Cela Milton and Bob Cole hold the replica check. Once again, Upchurch Watson White & Max was a major sponsor...

After almost 20 months of negotiations, Rodney A. Max of Miami and Pamela Reeves of Knoxville, Tenn., have successfully mediated to resolution the dispute between 872 plaintiffs and the Tennessee Valley Authority regarding its 2008 coal-ash spill. The settlement recently was publicly announced as a $27.8 million payment distributed among owners of property in and around TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant. The spill at the plant reportedly dumped 5.4 million cubic yards of ash into the Emory River and surrounding tributaries, according to The Knoxville News-Sentinel. The TVA was sued for alleged damages, and U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan found TVA liable in the spill -- however, issues of causation and damages were left open -- and ordered mediation. At the end of December 2012, he appointed Mr. Max and Ms. Reeves to resolve the outstanding issues.

From http://www.flcourts.org/resources-and-services/alternative-dispute-resolution The 22nd Annual Conference for ADR Professionals: "The...