University of Florida Symposium: Mediation in Florida and Beyond

John Upchurch and former Chief Justice Ben Overton of the Upchurch Watson White & Max Mediation Group were two of four featured speakers for the University of Florida Institute for Dispute Resolution's ADR Symposium on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 entitled  "Mediation in Florida and Beyond."

The symposium was organized and hosted by Professor Len Risken, Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, a renowned scholar and leader in the study of dispute resolution.  Professor Riskin formerly served as Director of the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution at the University of Missouri - Columbia , a program of national distinction.

A pioneer in mediation in Florida , Mr. Upchurch was among the first group of mediators to become certified.  He was appointed by the Supreme Court to its Committee on Mediation and Arbitration in 1989 and to the Panel of Distinguished Neutrals of the Center for Public Resources, a national consortium of business leaders, academics and providers of neutral services, in 1993.

Justice Ben Overton was the first Florida Supreme Court Justice to be selected under the merit selection process, which was designed to remove politics from Florida' s judicial system and improve the quality of the state's courts.  An early advocate of the alternative dispute resolution process, Justice Overton became certified as a circuit civil mediator in Florida following his retirement from the court, having received his training at the Duke University Dispute Resolution Center .

Established in 1996, the mediation group of Upchurch Watson White & Max is a nationally recognized mediation specialty firm encompassing a large and growing number of Supreme Court certified circuit civil attorney mediators with wide ranging specialties.