Mesites Foundation Newsletter

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Welcome to a special issue of the Mesites Foundation Newsletter

In this Issue

	The Fourth Thursday Lecture Series Presents:
	About the Speakers
	Event Details
	Upcoming

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The Fourth Thursday Lecture Series Presents:

ADR in Practice: Diverse Choices/Diverse Perspectives

Close your eyes and imagine a lawyer. What sort of picture appears in your mind? Is it a balding white man in his fifties, with a leather briefcase and a thousand-dollar suit? Shut your eyes a little tighter, and see what else comes into focus—do you see a young Latina woman standing before a crowd of new immigrants, explaining, in Spanish, their rights in this new and unfamiliar country? Or an African-American woman who voices the complaints of the 600,000 active members of the Steelworkers Union in their struggle to obtain job security, health insurance coverage, and other benefits?

Women like these two—Marilin Martinez-Walker and Amanda Green—and their fellow panelists, Chaton Turner, and Audrey Kwak, belong to a new wave of attorneys, who are able “to look beyond the basic actions giving rise to the lawsuit, to the motives behind the actions,” says Kwak. These extraordinary women of color, armed with law degrees and a strong dose of courage, work in diverse practice areas, ranging from construction law to medical malpractice. Even so, they share a common bond—they are each dedicated to resolving conflicts between cultures and communities not only in the courtroom, but in neighborhoods, schools, and even family homes.

Mediation is a growing practice area in the legal field. In mediation, legal battles are not settled through long, embattled trials, but through an older, simpler method, in which both parties simply talk about their problems. Often, there is no need for further action, and the parties settle their dispute immediately; Ms. Green recounts an experience mediating a dispute in which a man was suing a former friend over nine dollars’ worth of Girl Scout Cookies. Immediately, Green realized that “he wasn’t there about the cookies or the other stuff. His former friend had stopped talking to him for some reason that was no longer important when we resolved the mediation with a handshake and an agreement that his friend would pay him what he owed.” Mediation is one of society’s most important tools—it is a way to bring peace to those in conflict. Used wisely, it can bring ethnic groups together, resolve long-standing grievances, and even end wars.

At 4:30 pm in the Welker Room of Laughlin Music Hall at Chatham College, the panelists will share their views and experiences as women of color in the field of conflict resolution, serving as panelists on the topic “ADR in Practice: Diverse Choices/Diverse Perspectives. This is a free event; a reception will follow the presentation.

About the Speakers

Amanda Green provides representation for the United Steelworkers Union in Pittsburgh, where she is “not only a lawyer, but an advisor, counselor, teacher, student, political activist, investigator and ambassador.” She has served as a mediator for various cases, both in Pittsburgh and in her home state, New Jersey, and provides pro bono legal counsel to abused women through Pittsburgh’s Neighborhood Legal Services. In her free time, she enjoys horseback riding. “The horses I’ve encountered have been very gentle and extremely easy to guide because I go with the ‘no experience necessary’ crowd,” says Green. “Imagine if mediation was that easy!”

Audrey Kwak is the only female in the construction litigation practice group at Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, a major law firm in Pittsburgh. She became interested in law because of an undergraduate psychology course in which she was required to interview patients with Alzheimer’s disease and their families, where, Kwak says, “I saw on a daily basis the frustration—mixed with sadness and love—that the caregivers inevitably displayed, whether they were children or spouses of the patient. I knew that I could do little as a student and later as a researcher to advocate for the change I perceived was necessary, and sought out law as a means of effecting the policy change that ultimately works practical changes.”

Marilin Martinez-Walker worked as a television reporter and producer for a news station in Syracuse, New York before earning her law degree. She now works in the field of complex civil litigation at the Pittsburgh law firm, Thorp Reed & Armstrong, LLP. As one of the few Latinas in the firm, she says, “I bring different ideas to the table because of my heritage and the way I was raised. Latinos are the largest minority population in this country right now. I believe being a Latina lawyer will help me in the future with business development and with helping clients in their legal needs.” Martinez-Walker also works with the New Hispanic Attorney's Committee, where she provides workshops in Spanish to the Latino community, and helps to mentor young Latino law students.

Chatón Turner provides legal representation and assists in medical malpractice cases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where she is also involved with Intermediation, a mediation practice within the hospital system that “gives answers to the patients,” she says. Although Turner is one of only a few African-American lawyers at her practice, she welcomes the challenge to make her voice heard within the system. Because health care “touches all people,” says Turner, “the health care system needs diverse representations.” Besides her legal work, Turner has many interests, including singing, voice-over acting, and writing children’s books.

Moderator Cassandra Georges is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where she was deeply involved with Programs for Awareness in Cultural Education (PACE), which deals with “the ‘–isms’, like racism and sexism,” says George. “It’s about how you see the world, and how the world sees you.” Within PACE, she facilitated workshops at sorority and fraternity houses on topics like sexual harassment, and moderated disputes throughout the greater Philadelphia community. Her work with PACE inspired Georges to pursue a career in the mediation field, and she is now the first recipient of the Impartial Dispute Resolution Services (IDRS) Dispute Resolution Fellowship, where she works with Robert A. Creo. As panel moderator, she looks forward to showing students the “unique and different perspectives” of prominent women of color. “It will be a great conversation,” she says.

Event Details