Back To School

The Florida Mediator certification is tougher than the Florida Bar. To keep your law license, you have to take 30 hours of continuing legal ed (CLE) every 3 years, and it can all be by videotape. I'd guess about 10% of Florida lawyers actually watch all the tapes --human nature causes a lot of fast forwarding.

The Mediator gig, though, requires 16 hours every 2 years, and HALF must be by live class! They're tough on folks who are supposed to be the warm, fuzzy part of dispute resolution.

Since my renewal is coming up, I decided to take anothr certification course, and become a Family Court Mediator. I figured the stories would be better there than the run of the mill slip and fall and auto crash and mortgage foreclosure stuff.

The class is 5 days from 8 to 530. Today is the third session, and next weekend we finish up. I'm TIRED. I'm not used to all this work without break!

Fortunately, it's been interesting. The class is run by Mel Rubin, a 67 year old lawyer and pioneer in the mediation game. He's dryly humorous, and has a wealth of stories to tell. My favorite is the mediation where the wife was a leading church lady, who spent the whole session complaining about how her husband was a lost soul who hadn't found Jesus, which was the problem with their marriage.

The husband's lawyer pulled out an envelope of photos, which he implied showed the wife in "private Jesus sessions" with her pastor, in a cheap motel. The case settled soon after.

I never get bored of hearing about the sanctimonious fall!

The class has 32 students. 5 are mental health professionals, who are doing more and more of the mediations. We also have 6 Dade judges, some retired, including one of my favorites, Art Rothenberg. Judge R is a twin of the actor Steve Landsberg, and he's a smart and compassionate man, currently in the Probate Division. We have kids who graduated Palmetto together, so our paths have crossed quite a bit. He has a courtliness about him (Ha!) and it's been terrific getting to speak with him in a relaxed session.

Mel's wife Susan lectured yesterday. She's a clinical psychologist, and handles a LOT of divorce related counseling and mediation. I was spellbound. She's so wise, and caring, and clearly brilliant.

I met her afterward, and told her I was happily married for nearly 24 years, but was so impressed with her, I wished I could get divorced just to spend some more time in her presence. She laughed heartily, and said that my referrals would do just fine...

This am we hear from a CPA who is an expert on the financial aspects of divorce, and then we have some more mock mediations. I played a mediator yesterday, and my law partner Paul, who is taking the course with me, played the aggrieved wife. That brought chuckles from all assembled.

A retired judge played the husband, and played his role with great passion --calling Paul a slut and bitch. Once we rose about the surreality, it was a great exercise...

The class is held at the UM Law School, and finals are going on. I see the poor bastards all anxious, awating their killer exams. I don't miss those days at all, of course.

So --off to school again.

Who knows? Maybe I'll end up as a full time Mediator after all.