CBA Record May-June 2022

YOUNG L AWYERS S EC T I ON : COME TOGE THER

CBA Mediations, At Your Service By Tracy Brammeier, YLS Chair

CBA YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION Chair Tracy Brammeier Clifford Law Offices, P.C. First Vice-Chair Daniel Berkowitz Office of the Illinois Attorney General Second Vice-Chair Martin Gould Romanucci & Blandin, LLC Member Service Manager Kenneth Matuszewski Goldberg Segalla LLP Public Service Manager John Risvold The Collins Law Firm, PC Project Officer Gavin Phelps Phelps LLC Project Officer Margaret Mendenhall Casey City of Chicago Department of Law Secretary/Treasurer Kernisha Padilla Blank Rome LLP Co-Editor in Chief YLS Journal Kaitlin King Hart David Carson, LLP Co-Editor in Chief YLS Journal Theodore Kontopoulos BKD LLP YLS Journal Vice Chair Jacob B. Berger Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC Co-Editor YLS Blog Laura Wibberley Barker, Castro, Kuban & Steinback, LLC Co-Editor YLS Blog Alexandra Morelli Barker, Castro, Kuban & Steinback, LLC Health and Wellness Facilitator Alexander Passo

with a system that can be slow, costly, and full of uncertainty, and who needed an affordable solution to resolve their disputes quickly and effectively. Younger lawyers, especially, might be interested in an accessible service for cases on which they can take the lead or direct the case and settlement strategy, while gaining insight from and working alongside sea soned professionals in their practice areas. More than 50 mediators are available, all of whom use their training and experience to help parties settle conflicts involving family law, personal injury, real estate, subroga tion, commercial law, and other types of cases. Participants can expect an excellent chance of resolution while negotiating in a safe environment with an experienced, vetted, and engaged CBA mediator. As young lawyers, getting a seat at the bargaining table and becoming the deci sionmakers in our cases is an important step in our professional development. A low-risk mediation environment with the ability to network with and to seek the guidance of experienced mediators in Chicago is a great place to gain the confi dence and wherewithal to get to the next level in your practice. Simply put, there is no downside to coming together with opposing counsel at the CBA to see what you can achieve for your client. You can find a mediator for your next case at www.chicagobarmediation.org.

A ll cases, big or small, simple or complex, eventually need to be resolved through settlement or trial. Alternative dispute resolution has become a better option than ever before to explore settlement possibilities, with the backlog of cases ready for trial and judges’ dockets overloaded as a result of the pandemic. For some of those smaller or simpler cases, how ever, the high cost of private mediations can make attorneys reluctant to agree to meet at the negotiating table. To meet the increased need for trial alternatives, the CBA created a mediation program that offers experienced, trained CBA member mediator services to attor neys to help facilitate settlement. This ser vice provides a less expensive and more efficient dispute resolution system. The CBA mediation service was con ceived in the early days of the pandemic by Thomas Mulroy, a former judge in the Cook County Law Division’s Commercial Calendar section and a past CBA president. Judge Mulroy saw the CBA mediation ser vice as a way to help civil litigants frustrated

Latimer LeVay Fyock LLC Immediate Past Chair Jeffrey Moskowitz Momentum Funding, LLC

36 May/June 2022