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...

Upchurch Watson White & Max is pleased to announce that mediator Mike Orfinger, a principal with the firm, will become a judge for Florida's Seventh Judicial Circuit in January 2015. His opponent for the seat recently was appointed to replace another judge, leaving Mr. Orfinger unopposed in the upcoming election. Mr. Orfinger will replace retiring Judge R. Michael Hutcheson on the Seventh Circuit. Mike Orfinger's father, the late Melvin Orfinger, was one of the original judges on the Fifth District Court of Appeal, and Mike's brother, Richard Orfinger, is a sitting judge on the same court their father helped to establish.

Robert A. Cole, a shareholder with Upchurch Watson White & Max who is based in Jacksonville -- but who travels all over Florida to mediate -- made a few personal appearances that were not mediations over the last several weeks. First, Bob participated in a panel with two circuit judges and two other mediators discussing trial issues unique to construction law cases. The Jacksonville Bar Association Construction Law Committee presented the discussion at the end of May.

Brad Wash, a shareholder with Upchurch Watson White & Max, will speak about avoiding impasse in mediation's early going on Saturday, June 14, at the Alabama Association for Justice's Sun & Stars Annual Convention. His brief talk on the assigned subject of "When the Shells Are Far Apart -- The Nuts Come Out" will highlight best practices for litigators who are shepherding their clients through the mediation process. It is part of ALAJ's new "rapid fire format."

UWWM shareholder Robert Cole recently spoke for a 50-minute session, labeled "Circuit Civil Ethical Considerations," for the seventh annual N.E....

"Mediation is an important part of the process because it provides the structure often needed for each side to sit down and meaningfully discuss...