This program offers 1 participatory MCLE credit; 0.25 legal Ethics.

In today’s highly divisive social media world, there is a tendency to think that sports-like aggressive intimidation is the way to “win” a negotiating advantage over opponents.  It is not uncommon for attorneys to submit briefs and make statements boasting of their client’s superior position and demeaning the inferior position of their opponents on the facts and law.  

They come to mediations expecting mediators to “twist arms” and persuade opponents to compromise and see the wisdom of their own enlightened position. While each side sees the overt moves and statements of the other side during the course of the negotiation, they cannot see in “real time” how the negotiations are being affected by their specific actions. The panelist will reveal what the negotiating attorneys cannot see and will offer some tips about how zealous advocates can be even better negotiators.  The discussion will include how lawyer ethics can be an invaluable negotiating tool. 

Speakers: Judge Lynn O’Malley Taylor (ret.), Sidney Kanazawa, and Gilda Turitz

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Judge Lynn O’Malley Taylor (Ret.) joined JAMS in October 2019 after serving for over 35 years as a trial court judge. She was the first woman elected to the court in Marin County in 1982.

Judge Taylor served on the bench in Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento and Orange counties, and as a judge in the San Francisco Superior Court as part of the Judicial Council’s Assigned Judges Program.

Based in the JAMS San Francisco Resolution Center, Judge Taylor is a mediator and arbitrator for business/commercial, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) claims, construction, employment, family law, insurance, personal injury/torts, product liability, and real property matters.

Treating all with dignity and kindness, Judge Taylor has well-deserved respect from the lawyers and litigants who have appeared before her. She approaches each matter that comes before her with optimism and persistence.

Judge Taylor has shared her expertise serving as faculty in judicial/legal education programs, including Stanford University Law School, University of San Francisco Law School and the California Judicial College. Most recently she taught a course on Advanced Settlement Conferences at the Center for Judicial Education and Research.

Sid Kanazawa is a full-time mediator/arbitrator with ARC (Alternative Resolution Centers LLC) https://www.arc4adr.com/sidney_kanazawa.php.  He is a graduate of the University of Hawaii (B.Ed.), University of Southern California (J.D.), and the negotiation and mediation programs at Harvard University (Program on Negotiation), Pepperdine University (Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution), Los Angeles Superior Court, Edelman Children’s Court, and the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  He is known for creative, quick, and satisfactory dispute resolutions.  In the largest oil spill in the Port of Los Angeles, Sid turned an angry mob into collaborators, settled 600 claims in two weeks (all 2,000+ in 3 months), and directed hundreds in a record three-month clean-up of seven miles of shoreline.  After a lengthy trial, he recovered 93% of the clean-up and claims costs from another shipowner, recovered more than 100% in other settlements, and reduced the felony charges against his client to administrative fines. Sid is a prolific author/speaker/teacher, is admitted to practice in Hawaii and California, and has been a National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) instructor and program director for more than 30 years.  

Gilda Turitz is an independent arbitrator and mediator of complex commercial cases with over 30 years’ experience, based in San Francisco with a nationwide practice, and, since the COVID-19 pandemic, regularly conducts arbitrations and mediations on Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms.  Gilda was named Best Lawyers of America® 2019 San Francisco “Lawyer of the Year” for Arbitration and is a Fellow, College of Commercial Arbitrators, and a CEDR Accredited Mediator.  She is on AAA’s arbitration, large complex case, and mediation panels, CPR’s Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, and the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals’ arbitration and mediation rosters. More information at: https://turitzadr.com