Fairly Legal Returns for Season 2

March marks the return of Kate Reed and the second season of the USA network television show Fairly Legal. Kate continues to mediate disputes on the small screen between estranged lovers to large corporations. Since the majority of real-life mediations are kept confidential, most folks won’t know what is mediation fact or fiction.  Join Pattie Porter and special co-host, Stephen Kotev, as they discuss how Kate solved the problem and what a professional mediator would have done. Read, Listen, Share »

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Is Fairly Legal Fairly Relevant? – Part 2

The USA show “Fairly Legal” is stirring up the mediation field. Whether you think it is a travesty of the professional mediation field, or the best thing that’s happened to mediation since the book Getting to Yes, the fact is this show is pushing our buttons. Let’s take a closer look at how this show is portraying mediators, what’s true, what isn’t, and what we wish were true. This series is NOT a documentary but an entertainment show. We want to take the opportunity to educate the public by pointing out the fiction and highlighting the facts about what mediator’s really do in their practices and how mediation can be a very viable resource to resolving conflict between parties.

My guest co-host, Zena Zumeta will lead a discussion with me Clare Fowler , Rita Callahan and Jeff Thompson.

Rita Callahan is a conflict resolution and collaborative consultant; and Jeff Thompson is a mediator and law enforcement detective from NYC. He is also a PhD candidate at Griffith University Law School based in Australia.
Both Rita and Jeff were our special guests in our Part 1show on Fairly Legal: Mediation Truth of Fiction? In our Part 2 show, Is Fairly Legal Fairly Relevant? we are joined by a new guest Clare Fowler. Clare is the author of the Fairly Legal Blog and Managing Editor at Mediate.com. She received her Master’s of Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University School of Law. She also coordinated the career development program for The Straus Institute dispute resolution students. She is currently researching her doctoral dissertation on designing dispute resolution systems that will sustain small businesses. In addition to her editorial duties at Mediate.com, Clare mediates workplace disputes, raises two adorable kids and an equally adorable husband.

For more information on Clare, go to Clare Fowler. To learn more about mediation, go to ADRHub or to Mediate.com

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Fairly Legal – Mediation Truth or Fiction?

A hotly debated topic in the dispute resolution field is the new television series on USA Network “Fairly Legal”. The show’s entertaining focus is on a female, attorney mediator, Kate Reed and her alternative approach to dealing with conflict unlike her aggressive, litigious and now deceased, attorney father. For the dispute resolution field, this is an awesome opportunity to educate the general public about mediation.

My special co-host, Zena Zumeta and I will dialogue with Rita Callahan, a Conflict Resolution and Collaboration Consultant along with Jeff Thompson, a mediator and law enforcement detective from NYC about the truths of mediation, and dispel the myths of mediation as played out by fictional character Kate Reed, sexy mediator extradonaire

Pattie Porter is the founder and president of Conflict Connections, Inc. She is passionate about helping people, teams and organizations embrace conflict, navigate change and resolve conflict.

Zena Zumeta is a lawyer and a former president of the Academy of Family Mediators. Zena is president of the Mediation Training & Consultation Institute, Zena Zumeta Mediation Services, and The Collaborative Workplace in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

For more information on go to Fairly Legal, Association for Conflict Resolution(ACR) and  ADRHub

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