James Corbett, an English barrister and Queen's Counsel, moderates the first panel.

On September 12, 2016, Cardozo hosted the first US Global Pound Conference event (the GPC), which is one of 40 identical events to be held around the globe.  Over the next year, the events will continue ending in London in July 2017.  The series, which is entitled Shaping the Future of Dispute Resolution and Improving Access to Justice, seeks reliable, comparable data about what users and professionals involved in ADR need and whether the dispute resolution landscape and structures can change to provide that.  The intent is to promote conversations about all forms of civil justice in the context of commercial disputes: court litigation, arbitration, conciliation and mediation.

 

	Panel four panelists, who reflected on action items for promoting better access to justice. are pictured here looking at the Word Cloud created by the participants of the NY Global Pound Conference for their panel. Photo credit: David Reinman.

The Global Pound Series is utilizing PowerVote, which is an interactive, real time voting platform in order to aggregate as much data from different groups concurrently.  The structure, which will be repeated at all 40 events, is to have audience members vote directly on four core questions and then continue the discussion in small groups while utilizing the online word cloud and question platform.  The panel participants-29 in total-were asked not to plan their remarks in advance but to respond and interact to the data in real time.  It was an exciting and interesting day filled with interactive conversations and panel discussions!

Steven Yadegari is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and General Counsel at Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn, LLC (CRM). CRM is a registered investor advisor located in New York City that invests across a variety of investment accounts and products and caters to an institutional audience, including 401 k plans, retirement systems, pension plans and others. Steven oversees all legal compliance operations and human resources functions at his firm. As part of his role as COO, he deals with a range of employee-related issues from hiring and firing to considering structural changes. According to Steven, when dealing with sensitive employee-related issues, the skill set that he acquired as a mediator in the Cardozo Mediation Clinic is incredibly valuable.  His role requires negotiating and dealing with a variety of third parties, clients, regulators, service providers and others, and these interactions are all aided by his understanding of principled negotiating techniques, active listening, and interest-based discussions. 

After graduation, Steven worked at the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). One of his roles while at the SEC was Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcements in the Office of the Chief Counsel. In that role he worked with the regional offices and helped bring their enforcement recommendations to the SEC Commissioners for approval. He believes he was selected for this sensitive task because of his mediation background. The position required a deep understanding of negotiation since there is an inherent tension that exists between enforcement colleagues seeking to bring an action and the skeptical and critical view the Commission must use to review any alleged violations. As Senior Counsel, Steven was there to guide enforcement colleagues to present their recommended actions in the best and most effective way.