The "Ethical Mediator?" Fact or Fiction

Is it reasonable for parties and lawyers to expect that their chosen mediators will, among other things: (1) disclose all potential conflicts of interest before accepting an assignment, (2) maintain party confidences obtained from one caucus to the next, and (3) follow generally accepted ethical mediation principles (And what are those principles?). To what end if your mediator fails to do this?

Malcolm S. McNeil (President - Beverly Hills Bar Association & Partner and International Practice Co-Leader at ArentFox Schiff) will lead a discussion with Mary B Culbert (former Clinical Professor and Director of the Loyola Center for Conflict Resolution) and A. Marco Turk (Professor Emeritus, and former Director of the Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding graduate/undergraduate programs at California State University-Dominguez Hills) to discuss these and other related questions while presenting their ideas for a new streamlined Ethical Code of Conduct for Mediators.

These ideas are further described in Professor Culbert's forthcoming article entitled "Proposal: A New Unified Canon of Mediator Ethics" to be published by the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution (Moritz College of Law) in 2023.