Alternative Dispute Resolution Panel

Panel Chair

Audrey J. Lee is the Panel Chair and a Senior Mediator and Training Director at BLC. Audrey’s mediation practice is focused on resolving conflicts in employment, business, and family cases. Prior to joining BLC, Audrey was a mediator with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination where she mediated harassment, disability, age, race, and gender discrimination cases. She is a member of the EEOC Mediation Panel and a frequent lecturer and coach for mediation skills trainings. Audrey is also a member of a pool of Title IX Adjudicators for Harvard Law School.

Panel Administrator

Karen A. Richards is the ADR Case Manager and a paralegal with Boston Law Collaborative. She received a bachelor’s degree in legal studies and her graduate certificate from the University of Massachusetts Alternative Dispute Resolution Program. Prior to working at BLC, Karen worked as a paralegal for 16 years and served as a Mediator in the Brighton District Court, where she helped to resolve small claims and civil cases.

Loretta Attardo has been a practicing mediator and arbitrator of employment related disputes since 1996. In 2007, she transitioned her practice from one which included representation of clients as well as mediation and arbitration to a practice strictly as a neutral in employment and other commercial disputes. Her 28 years of experience representing clients on both the employer side and the employee side puts her in a unique position to assist parties in carefully examining the strengths and weaknesses of their cases.

Israela Adah Brill-Cass is an Affiliate at Boston Law Collaborative and founder of Fixerrr, a conflict resolution consulting firm. Israela is an attorney and has been a trained mediator and facilitator since 1998.  Israela teaches Mediation, Facilitation, Conflict and Negotiation at Emerson College and she provides trainings and workshops on conflict management, mediation and conciliation skills for private companies, the American Bar Association, the Trial Court and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.

Melissa Brodrick has served as a mediator, conflict coach, trainer and facilitator since 1985 with a focus on high-impact, highly charged workplace and family issues. Her clients have included corporations ranging from small businesses to the Fortune 500, state and federal agencies, health care organizations and educational institutions.  Educated at Amherst College and Harvard University, she is currently the Ombudsperson for faculty, staff, students and trainees at Harvard’s Medical School, School of Dental Medicine and School of Public Health.

Dana Curtis has been mediating employment disputes, facilitating workplace interventions and investigating employment complaints for over twenty years. Her experience includes mediating hundreds of employment matters for four years as a staff mediator for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. As one of California’s foremost mediation trainers, she has designed and facilitated scores of workplace mediation and facilitation training programs.

Charles “Chuck” Doran is an experienced mediator specializing in the resolution of employment and commercial disputes.  A mediator since 1992, he is a member of the CPR Dispute Resolution Panel of Distinguished Neutrals and has provided employment and workplace mediation and other ADR services to a variety of clients including AT&T, Bose, BMW of North America, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Oxfam America, the EEOC, the MCAD, and the USPS REDRESS I and REDRESS II Mediation Panels.  In 1994, Chuck founded MWI, a nationally recognized dispute resolution service & training organization based in Boston that provides individual & corporate clients with negotiation consulting and training, mediation & arbitration services, & mediation training.

David H. Gibbs is an experienced mediator, arbitrator, facilitator and Associate Professor of Practice at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law. He has over 25 years of experience handling hundreds of disputes as a neutral in areas ranging from closely held and family businesses, leadership and leadership governance to disputes involving businesses, technology, employment, intellectual property, securities and real estate. Prior to his neutral work, David was a partner in the Boston offices of Peabody & Brown, Nixon Peabody and Bowditch & Dewey.

Don Greenstein has a background in conflict management, dispute resolution, law, facilitation and ombuds work. He has over 26 years of experience working with a broad spectrum of technical issues and ADR processes. Don is a “re-formed” attorney, whose conflict management work has involved facilitation and mediation of private and governmental workplace issues, interpersonal, family, end of life, elder, environmental, health, community and tribal matters.

Dwight Golann is one of the most respected neutrals in the United States. He has successfully resolved hundreds of disputes involving contract, tort, corporate, insurance, employment, construction, real estate, intellectual property, franchise, personal injury, class action, securities and other issues.

A Professor of Law at Suffolk University, he has taught mediation techniques to hundreds of lawyers and led trainings for members of the J.A.M.S. national panel and federal courts. Professor Golann has been named to Best Lawyers in America in Mediation, received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, and is the author of Mediating Legal Disputes, the American Bar Association’s primary book on mediating civil cases.

Before becoming a mediator, Professor Golann represented individual and corporate clients for two decades in private practice. He also served as Chief of the Trial and Administrative Divisions of the Attorney General of Massachusetts, trying dozens of cases and supervising all litigation involving state officials and agencies.

James E. Grumbach is Of Counsel at BLC.  He has had experience in a wide range of civil litigation matters including insurance, professional liability, commercial disputes, personal injury, corporate and partnership matters, real estate, employment, construction and family matters.  He has served as a neutral (mediator, arbitrator and case evaluator) for over 30 years, handling disputes in the above areas, along with divorce, consumer-merchant, landlord-tenant, FDIC and MCAD/EEOC claims, medical device claims, freeze-outs, family business disputes, severance, and valuation of professional practices.

David Hoffman is the founding member of Boston Law Collaborative, LLC.  He has mediated and arbitrated more than a thousand disputes, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to employment, construction, and family cases. David was previously a partner at Hill & Barlow in Boston, where he practiced for 17 years and was a member of the Employment and Labor Law Practice Group.  He is past-chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and currently chairs the Section’s Collaborative Law Committee. David teaches Mediation and Collaborative Law at Harvard Law School. His publications include Bringing Peace into the Room (with co-editor Daniel Bowling) (Jossey-Bass 2003). He is an honors graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Paul Holtzman is an experienced mediator and hearing officer with a track record of resolution of individual and class action disputes arising out of all aspects of the employment relationship, including wage and hour issues, discrimination, sexual harassment, disability, FMLA and non-competition disputes.

Vivian Hsu is the principal of Hsu & Associates LLC, a law firm specializing in employment counseling, workplace training programs, internal investigations and mediation services to businesses and non-profit organizations. She provides mediation services for employment disputes, conducts workplace investigations as an independent fact finder, and serves as a facilitator for business and community groups. Her mediation experience includes serving on the American Arbitration Association panel of mediators for complaints before the MCAD.

Marvin Johnson is a nationally recognized mediator and arbitrator on the JAMS roster of neutrals. The founder of the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution in Greenbelt, MD, he served 16 years as Professor of Labor Relations, Law, and Conflict Management at Bowie State University. The President of the United States, Secretary of State, Governor of MD, and Chief Judge of the MD Court of Appeals have recognized Mr. Johnson’s dispute resolution expertise by appointing him to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, the Foreign Service Grievance Board, the MD State Labor Relations Board, and the MD ADR Commission, respectively.

Michele Keratsis is an attorney and mediator at Boston Law Collaborative. Her practice focuses on family law, and she has experience with high conflict divorce, custody, paternity, support, never married parents, post adoption contact, and divorce involving long term medical issues. Michele is dedicated to reducing the negative impact of family disputes through mediation and Collaborative Law. In addition to her work as a BLC mediator, Michele serves on the panel of the Divorce and Family Mediation Panel of Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI). She is a member of the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation (MCFM) and serves as a role play coach to mediators-in-training during the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Family Law Mediation Training.

Homer C. La Rue has served as an arbitrator and mediator in numerous employment, labor and non-labor disputes in the public and private sectors for twenty years. Homer is a Professor at Howard University School of law and is on the JAMS roster of neutrals. He is past President of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution and a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators.

Stephen M. Linsky has served as an appellate board member and general counsel under the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor, as well as mediator, arbitrator, conciliator, and facilitator in private, court, and public agency connected matters since 1986, including appointments to the U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs, Massachusetts Health Care Connector and Middlesex MultiDoor Courthouse ADR panels. Stephen also services families and family businesses as co-founder of Family Co-Mediation.

Melinda Milberg is an attorney, mediator, arbitrator, and trainer with over 37 years of experience and a solo practice in Natick, Massachusetts. She was appointed by the Governor as a Public Member of the Board of Registration in Medicine and has served as a hearing officer for physician discipline cases. Melinda currently serves as a hearing officer for the Commonwealth Connector and as an arbitrator for FINRA and AAA. She is past President of the New England chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution, past President of the Women’s Bar Association, and past Co-Chair of the Boston Bar Association’s ADR Committee. She currently is on the Board and secretary of Metrowest Mediation Services.

Jody Newman has 30 years’ experience litigating employment disputes and business litigation, primarily representing plaintiffs. She has successfully tried such cases to state and federal judges, juries and arbitrators and has argued appeals. Jody is also highly experienced in alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and collaborative law. An accomplished mediation advocate, Jody is a certified mediator, skilled in helping parties resolve the most entrenched disputes. She is active in the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association, and is a past Co-Chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section.

Marsha Saylor has served as a full-time neutral since 1982 specializing in labor and employment cases. She served as an Administrative Judge for the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board from 1982-1985, adjudicating employment and discrimination cases. She serves on many national permanent panels including General Electric and CWA, Federal Aviation Administration, NATCA, American Arbitration Association, and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. She chaired the Boston Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, the BBA Labor Arbitration Committee, and the Massachusetts Bar Association Labor Law Committee. She attended Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, and Seattle University School of Law.

Jay Siegel is an experienced neutral labor and employment arbitrator and mediator with wide expertise in the resolution of contemporary employment disputes involving corporate severance plans for both salaried and executive employees, pension issues and benefit matters. He is on the American Arbitration Association’s National Employment Dispute Resolution Panel and National Labor-Management Arbitration Panel. A former practicing labor and employment lawyer, including trial litigation, he was national Chairman of the Section of Labor & Employment Law of the American Bar Association.

Professor Lamont E. Stallworth is an educator, labor arbitrator, mediator and fact-finder and a Professor at Loyola University Institute of Human Resources and Industrial Relations. In his 30 years of experience, he has decided over 1,500 cases. Lamont received his Ph.D. from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and has held various positions in the labor-management relations arena. He is listed on the arbitration and mediation panels of the AAA, FMCS, and the National Mediation Board. He serves as a permanent arbitrator and grievance mediator on a number of private, public, and federal sector arbitration and grievance mediation panels.

Charles “Chuck” Walker is a trial and appellate lawyer and mediator, with more than 30 years of experience in government, non-profit, and academic positions. Chuck has served as Commissioner and Chair of MCAD, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, General Counsel and Chief Hearing Officer for the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure, General Counsel for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, Administrative Law Judge for the Massachusetts Division of Industrial Accidents and Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts. Chuck’s passion for resolving conflict has been an enduring feature of his career.

Conna Weiner is an experienced mediator, arbitrator and facilitator. She handles a wide variety of commercial and employment disputes, and has over 20 years of hands-on experience with litigation (including at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York), transactional, regulatory and compliance issues (including as in-house counsel for life sciences and healthcare companies). Her ADR panel listings include the AAA (General Commercial, Large Complex Case and Healthcare), the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (commercial, life sciences and healthcare), the American Health Lawyers Association, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the MA Fee Arbitration Board. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Chicago Law School.

John G. Wofford is a mediator, arbitrator, and facilitator based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For over twenty years he has provided impartial dispute resolution services in many areas, including employment disputes involving claimed discrimination, harassment, or wrongful termination. He was a presidential appointee to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, which resolves impasses in negotiations between the government and its unionized employees. He is former co-chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Boston Bar Association.