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Dispute Resolution Qualifications Alan Wiener has nearly a quarter century of experience helping individuals and organizations reach agreements and resolve disputes. During twenty years of private law practice, he represented clients as an advocate, negotiating transactions and settlements on their behalf, and presenting their disputes to judges, juries, and arbitrators for decision. Alan began seriously studying the theory and practice of facilitating agreements in 1997. Two years later, he stopped representing clients as an advocate and began serving exclusively as a neutral Mediator and Dispute Resolution Consultant for government and the private sector. Alan was a member of the first class to be awarded the LL.M. (Master of Laws) in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University School of Law, in 2003. He previously received the Master of Dispute Resolution degree from Pepperdine in 2000, after completing more than 350 classroom hours of theoretical and applied training in negotiation, mediation, communications, social psychology, public policy, and related subjects through the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. He has completed over 100 hours of additional training focused specifically on mediating litigated cases and environmental and public policy disputes. Alan has mediated many disputes in a broad range of subject areas including personal injury, property damage, real estate, technology, employment, malpractice, consumer, commercial, community and environmental. He conducted a mediation feasibility assessment and process design for a major public dispute concerning the proposed expansion of San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park. For further information, please see Subject Matter Knowledge and Expertise. Alan is employed part-time by the Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts to assist in the development, implementation, and evaluation of Alternative Dispute Resolution policies and programs on a statewide basis. Projects that he has been involved with include the development of rules of conduct for mediators who serve in court-connected mediation programs and ethics standards for privately contracted arbitrators who serve independently of the courts. He has assisted in the Early Mediation Pilot Program evaluation, a legislatively mandated study of the benefits of early mediation of civil cases that is being conducted in five counties, including Los Angeles. He has also helped to develop educational materials concerning alternative dispute resolution for judges and court administrators. Alan previously served as a consultant for the Los Angeles County Superior Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Office, coordinating the initial implementation of that court's Early Mediation Pilot Program. He also analyzed and reported survey responses by over 6000 persons who participated in mediation, arbitration and settlement conferences through the ADR Office, and prepared recommendations concerning its information collection, processing and reporting procedures. See: ADR Follow-up Survey Analysis: A Report to the Los Angeles Superior Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Office. Alan has prepared and delivered presentations concerning dispute resolution subjects, including:
Alan authored extensive text and forms concerning the subject of settlement, which were published in a preeminent practice guide for California attorneys. (California Transactions Forms, Business Transactions, Chapter 18, Settlement, Release and Related Methods of Discharge, Bancroft-Whitney, 1997.) Alan also taught civil litigation, real estate and business law courses in an ABA accredited graduate program for certified legal assistants. As an advocate, Alan represented individuals and organizations in a wide variety of transactions and disputes, primarily in the business, real estate and personal injury fields. He has significant experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants, and worked several years as a contract attorney for a national multi-line insurance carrier. He holds Martindale-Hubbell's highest ratings for legal ability and ethics (AV), based upon confidential opinions from other members of the Bar. Alan is the 2003 President, and a past Treasurer of the Association for Conflict Resolution, San Diego Chapter (formerly San Diego Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution. He is also amember of the international Association for Conflict Resolution (formerly SPIDR), the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, and the Alternative Dispute Resolution section of the San Diego County Bar Association.
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