California Lawyer, Texas Dispute Resolution Center to Receive ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver Awards at ABA Annual Meeting
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2004 — The Dispute Resolution Center of Harris County, Texas, and California lawyer Forrest “Woody” Mosten, a pioneer in leading alternative dispute resolution, will be recognized for their contributions to dispute resolution and mediation next month during the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
The ABA Section of Dispute Resolution will present Mosten with the 2004 Lawyer as Problem Solver Award, while the Dispute Resolution Center will receive the 2004 Institutional Lawyer as Problem Solver Award during a noon luncheon on Friday, Aug. 6 in the Presidential CLE Center in Room B401/402 of the Georgia World Congress Center.
The ABA Section of Dispute Resolution presents the Lawyer as Problem Solver Award each year to a member of the legal profession who has exhibited extraordinary skill in either promoting the concept of the lawyer as problem solver or resolving individual, institutional, community, state, national or international problems in his or her capacity as a lawyer.
Recipients are acknowledged for their use or promotion of collaboration, negotiation, mediation, counseling, decision-making and problem-solving skills to help parties resolve a problem in a creative and novel way.
Mosten, who has been practicing law in California since 1972 and participating in mediation there since 1979, is being recognized for his dedication to dispute resolution. In addition to resolving hundreds of disputes as a private and court-appointed mediator, Mosten pioneered the concept of unbundling legal services and developed client libraries.
Unbundling legal services refers to the concept that traditional legal services can be broken down into component parts, such as providing only mediation representation, negotiation and trial coaching, legal research, drafting of letters and similar work. For each task, the client and lawyer collaborate to determine the scope of the work.
The Louis M. Brown Client Library, established by Mosten, is the first law firm library devoted to client-oriented resource materials related to alternative dispute resolution.
The Dispute Resolution Center of Harris County, Texas is being recognized for its development of a “multi-door” alternative dispute resolution program, as well as for the role it has played in the development of alternative dispute resolution services in Texas and it’s commitment to the community. Founded in 1980 by the Houston Bar Association, the center–the first organization of its kind in Texas–provides resource referral and dispute resolution services for residents of Harris County.
The center was instrumental in the establishment of sixteen other dispute resolution centers across the state. In addition, it is credited with the creation of an alternative dispute resolution program to aid Harris County’s distressed court process, and with working to implement an alternative dispute resolution program for residents of assisted living facilities.
For more information, contact the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution at 202/662-1680 or online at www.abanet.org/dispute/home.html.
With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.
