Why Wait When You Can Mediate?

By Leah Wilson

 

Nearly anyone can mediate, but too many professionals wait until the end of their legal practice to pursue a career in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) when they can really start right now. You don’t necessarily need decades of experience of practicing law to build a successful mediation practice—though of course it doesn’t hurt.

 

An attorney who has tried or closed hundreds of cases can be as effective of a mediator as an attorney who has closed thousands of cases. Building a mediation practice requires time, diligence, and skill, all of which can be obtained within few years of legal practice. So why wait to put yourself “out there” professionally as a mediator?

 

Building a Mediation Practice

Launching a career as a mediator requires personal investment of time, resources, and energy to build relationships, and a reputation, with potential clients and the ADR community. People ultimately want to work with, and hire, people they like and know. When you start establishing yourself as a mediator, clients will start booking you for their cases.

 

The first step to becoming a mediator is fairly obvious—getting trained and/or certified. There are different types of mediation trainings and courses that will let you complete the necessary requirements which vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. When choosing a training program, I recommend you look for ones that provide supplemental courses that include practice building skills to help you launch your mediation career.

 

Second, I encourage new mediators to find their niches. What areas of the law do you have extensive knowledge in? What types of cases do you typically handle? It’s important to know what separates you from other mediators and identify the specific practice areas that you have expertise in and experience in; lawyers like to use mediators who are well-versed in type of law that their cases involve.

 

Finally, reestablish yourself as a mediator in your network. People usually don’t instantly have a full book of business when they become mediators, and your network won’t automatically know that you mediate when you start out. Take intentional steps to rebrand yourself as a mediator and not only an attorney to those that like, respect, and trust you. Your networks—whether they are legal, professional, social, personal, or all the above—can be your best sources of clients.

 

Note that you needn’t “finish” before you begin. In other words, mediators aren’t required to abandon or retire from their legal practices when starting their mediation careers, and that isn’t always financially feasible. It is entirely possible to have maintain a legal practice and start an ADR career as a mediator at the same time. (Of course, if you work for a law firm—as opposed to having your own practice—you’ll need to make some sort of arrangement with your current employer to give you the space and time to conduct mediations.)

 

Benefits of Launching a Mediation Practice

Besides producing a potentially lucrative supplemental income, there are significant benefits of working both as an attorney and a mediator. As a mediator, you develop conflict resolution skills, learn about different areas of the law, and add another skill set to your practice.

 

Simultaneously building your mediation practice while you continue to practice law can make you a better attorney and provide an additional income stream to your practice as well as increasing your value to your law firm.

 

Why Not Start Now? Or Soon?

Some of the most successful mediators I know and work with did not wait until the end of their career to start their full-time ADR practices. They may have started as part-time mediators, and today as full-time mediators, their lives seem to be less stressful and more rewarding because they opted for this legal path. They choose their hours and workdays, maintain a sizable income, utilize their legal education, and, often, have significantly less administrative responsibilities than they did as attorneys.

 

Being a “good” mediator isn’t dependent on how much experience you have. The core skills of a mediator have nothing to do with how many billable hours you clocked in or jury trials you’ve won. Great mediators use trustworthiness, creativity, humility, logic, dedication, and empathy to help their clients find resolution—none of which requires decades of law practice to develop.

 

So, don’t wait to mediate until you are finished with practicing law. Instead, start your mediation practice early, and reap the benefits from doing so.