Upchurch Watson White & Max is pleased to announce that Florida mediator Brandon S. Peters will join the firm effective Aug. 1, 2014. Mr. Peters currently operates a successful sole practice, imMEDIATE RESOLUTION LLC, and he intends to offer the same high-level services as dispute resolution counsel for UWWM. He recently described his unique value as a mediator. “I work differently,” he said. “I challenge the status quo to achieve better outcomes. I do that by focusing on the people involved in a mediation conference before I focus on the issues. It is important to know my audience and to know what factors –- emotional or otherwise –- may be driving negotiations. This helps me do my job more effectively.”

Mediator/arbitrator Howard R. Marsee, who is based in Upchurch Watson White & Max's Maitland/Orlando, Fla., office, began his term of service on The Florida Bar's Standing Committee on Professionalism in early July 2014. "As strange as it seems, I am serving on the Young Lawyers Working Group," Howard said wryly. "This is a sub-committee (not all are young) that creates and presents professionalism education and CLE programs for law students and young lawyers." Howard, who lives in Oviedo, will serve until 2017.

Look for the mediation group's mobile-device recharge station -- and check out its panelists in a CLE course titled "Leaning In to the Legal...