A: Every day, I am working with the top people in ADR. The JAMS Miami office is on the 26th floor of one of Miami’s newest office buildings. On any given day, I can look out on South Beach, Fisher Island, Key Biscayne, the Miami Seaquarium, and Brickell Key – and that’s from just one window. The cases I work on are challenging, significant disputes and the attorneys I work with are the finest in the legal community. It doesn’t get any better.

A: That’s a fascinating question. I see the future of ADR in Miami as bright as a Miami Beach sun at noon on the 4th of July – very bright and very hot.

Not long ago, I spoke to a class at the University of Miami School of Law and asked, “How many of you want to be a trial lawyer?” About 70% of the class raised their hands. I said, “I’ve got some bad news for you. You’re probably going to be a litigator.”

I wasn’t telling the students that they were ill equipped to try cases or that they lacked the talent to present a case to a jury. I wasn’t there to dash their hopes. Not at all. I went on to explain that a jury trial is an anomaly in our present day justice system. Today, cases are far more likely to be resolved in a caucus room rather than a courtroom. The statistics prove it.

In 2015, the 11th Judicial Circuit Civil Division disposed of 33,359 cases, yet there were only 225 reported jury trials. Even the 225 jury-trial figure was likely deceptively high. A jury trial is statistically recorded when the jury is empaneled, not when there is a verdict. Probably 10% of recorded jury trials do not result in a verdict, since cases are either settled during trial, mistried, or voluntarily/involuntarily dismissed.

Mediation and arbitration are the wave of the present and future.

A: At JAMS, it is not uncommon to work on cases that involve significant sums of money. One such case involved a billionaire. His opposing party was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It was like a clash of the titans.

The first mediation involved only attorneys. We accomplished some things during that session, but we soon realized the participation of the principals was essential to the negotiations. As part of my solution, I suggested that we reconvene at Joe’s Stone Crab, Miami Beach’s oldest and best-known restaurant. Rather than having a room full of lawyers, I suggested that each principal personally attend with just one attorney – their general counsel or personal lawyer. Everyone agreed and we recessed.

About a month later, we reconvened in a private room in Joe’s Take-Away; and over lunch consisting of colossal stone crab claws and all of the usual side orders, the parties hammered (pun intended) out a deal. It will be hard to top that mediation.

A: Trust the process. It may seem very long and challenging at times, but it is worth it.

When a mediation starts, I want the participants to know that time is their ally. The longer mediation takes, the more likely there is to be a positive resolution. Some people come into the mediation and want to get it over as soon as possible – “What’s their bottom line offer/demand?” They want a quickstep rather than a waltz. This is categorically disastrous.

The process works because the more time the parties spend in mediation, the more likely they are able to identify their wants and needs – which in turn helps to get the case resolved. Emotional responses or reactions tend to keep the parties in a lawsuit.

Based upon my observations, the emotion displayed during mediations are ephemeral during extended periods. After an effective mediation, the parties’ emotions take a back seat to reasonable thought and consideration.

A: I’ve never quite thought of myself as a casting director, though I did make a 43-minute documentary of our court system that is shown to every juror in Miami. I suppose if push came to shove, I would cast David Letterman. People have constantly told me I have a physical resemblance to him or is it he who has a physical resemblance to me. Either way, he is much funnier – hands down.

A: I mediate a variety of cases which include commercial disputes, personal injury claims, maritime, and even family cases. Having spent a great deal of my judicial career in the civil and family divisions of the circuit court, I found the experiences and knowledge I gleaned from those courts invaluable when helping parties resolve their disputes. I offer first-hand experience from the bench and can say with confidence, “This is what I’ve seen…” Oddly, at first, I didn’t think my service on the bench would be a significant benefit as a mediator. I quickly found out that I was wrong; my time as a judge proved to be invaluable.

A: I’ve always been fascinated by maritime law and its deep roots in history. One of the most enjoyable things I did on the bench was to create a maritime program for the judiciary. I gave the day-long program a hokey name, “A Primer on Maritime Law: How to be the Captain of your own Ship without Getting Motion Sickness.” A group of South Florida’s finest maritime lawyers made presentations and the program received rave reviews.