ODR 2022 Panellist Profiles

Ethan Katsh – Founder, National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution
Professor Katsh is widely recognized as the founder of the field of online dispute resolution (ODR). Along with Janet Rifkin, he conducted the eBay Pilot Project in 1999 that led to eBay’s current system that handles over sixty million disputes each year. With Professor Rifkin, he wrote Online Dispute Resolution: Resolving Conflicts in Cyberspace (2001), the first book about ODR. Since then, he has published numerous articles about ODR and co-edited Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice (2nd ed., 2021). The frequently mentioned metaphor of technology as a “Fourth Party” was first proposed in Katsh and Rifkin’s Online Dispute Resolution (2001). Professor Katsh is a graduate of the Yale Law School and was one of the first legal scholars to recognize the impact new information technologies would have on law. In The Electronic Media and the Transformation of Law (Oxford University Press, 1989) and Law in a Digital World (Oxford University Press, 1995), he predicted many of the changes that were to come to law and the legal profession. His articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Legal Forum, and other law reviews and legal periodicals. His scholarly contribution in the field of law and technology has been the subject of a Review Essay in Law and Social Inquiry. Professor Katsh has served as principal online dispute resolution consultant for the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), a federal agency mandated to provide mediation in Freedom of Information Act disputes. During 2010-2011, he was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Haifa (Israel). He has been Visiting Professor of Law and Cyberspace at Brandeis University and is co-editor of the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution. He was principal dispute resolution advisor to SquareTrade.com and was Chairman of the Board of Advisors of Modria.com. His principal current research involves issues related to health care and, more particularly, to disputes over electronic health records (see How Patients Can Improve the Accuracy of their Medical Records). Since 1996, Professor Katsh has been involved in a series of activities related to online dispute resolution. He participated in the Virtual Magistrate project and was founder and co-director of the Online Ombuds Office. In 1997, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, he and Professor Rifkin founded the National Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts. During the Summer of 1999, he co-founded Disputes.org, which later worked with eResolution to become one of the first four providers accredited by ICANN to resolve domain name disputes. From 2004 – 2010, Professor Katsh was co-Principal Investigator, with Professors Lee Osterweil, Lori Clarke and Dr. Norman Sondheimer of the UMass Department of Computer Science, of two National Science Foundation funded projects to model processes of online dispute resolution. This work was coordinated with the United States National Mediation Board. Professor Katsh has chaired the International Forums on Online Dispute Resolution, held in Geneva in 2002 and 2003, Melbourne in 2004, Cairo in 2006, Liverpool in 2007, Hong Kong in 2007, Victoria (Canada) in 2008, Haifa (Israel) in 2009, Buenos Aires in 2010, Chennai (India) in 2011, Prague in 2012, Montreal in 2013, Silicon Valley in 2014, New York in 2015 and The Hague and Beijing in 2016, in Paris in June 2017. Professor Katsh received the Chancellor’s Medal and gave the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Faculty Lecture in October 2006. In 2014-2015, he was an Affiliate of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Leah Wing – Director, National Centre for Technology and Dispute Resolution
Dr. Leah Wing is Director of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution (NCTDR) and Senior Lecturer II, Legal Studies Program, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. Leah is co-founder and Vice President of the Board of Directors, International Council for Online Dispute Resolution. She heads the Ethics and Online Dispute Resolution initiative of NCTDR and serves on the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section Online Dispute Resolution Standards Taskforce and on the ABA Committee on Technology and Dispute Resolution. Leah has taught dispute resolution since 1993 and served as a researcher on early experiments in online dispute resolution. Her present research projects focus on ethics and ODR, crowdsourcing and spatial justice, and technological responses to digital harm doing. Recent publications include “Ethical Principles and Standards for Online Dispute Resolution,” “Designing Ethical Online Dispute Resolution Systems: The Rise of the Fourth Party,” “Beneficial and Ethical ODR for Family Issues,” “Artificial Intelligence and Online Dispute Resolution Systems Design: Lack of/Access to Justice Magnified,” and “Ethical Principles for Online Dispute Resolution: A GPS Device for the Field.” Leah serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution and Conflict Resolution Quarterly, has served two terms on the Association of Conflict Resolution Board of Directors, and is on the advisory board of ODREurope. A dispute resolution trainer and consultant, Leah has worked with hundreds of agencies and organizations both in the U.S. and internationally.

Colin Rule – President and CEO of Mediate.com and Arbitrate.com
Colin Rule is President and CEO of Mediate.com and Arbitrate.com. In 2011 Colin co-founded Modria.com, an Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) provider based in Silicon Valley, which was acquired by Tyler Technologies in 2017. From 2017 to 2020 Colin served as Vice President of ODR at Tyler. From 2003 to 2011 Colin was Director of ODR for eBay and PayPal. Colin has worked in the dispute resolution field for 25 years as a mediator, trainer, and consultant. He is currently Co-Chair of the Advisory Board at the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at UMass-Amherst, and is a Lecturer-in-Law at the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School.
Colin co-founded Online Resolution, one of the first online dispute resolution (ODR) providers, in 1999 and served as its CEO and President. In 2002 Colin co-founded the Online Public Disputes Project, which applied ODR to multiparty, public disputes. Colin also worked for several years with the National Institute for Dispute Resolution in Washington, D.C. and the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, MA. Colin is the author of Online Dispute Resolution for Business (published by Jossey-Bass in September 2002) and co-author of The New Handshake: Online Dispute Resolution and the Future of Consumer Protection (published by the American Bar Association in 2017). He received the first Frank Sander Award for Innovation in ADR from the American Bar Association in 2020, and the Mary Parker Follett Award from the Association for Conflict Resolution in 2013. He holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in conflict resolution and technology, a graduate certificate in dispute resolution from UMass-Boston, and a B.A. in Peace Studies from Haverford College. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Eritrea from 1995-1997.

Daniel Rainey – Principal, Holistic Solutions Inc.
Daniel Rainey is a principal in Holistic Solutions, Inc. (HSI ), and an adjunct faculty member in graduate dispute resolution programs and law schools. He is currently a Fellow of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution, a member of the Board of Directors for the InternetBar.Org, and a founding member and founding Board Member, and Chair of the Governance Committee of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution (ICODR). He is the Co-Chair of Working Group 3 of the ODR Task Force for the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, and Co-Chair of the International Mediation Institute’s Online Mediator Competency Task Force. He is an immediate past member of the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Access to Justice Commission, Self-Represented Litigants Committee. As a third party and as a consultant, he has worked with clients in mediation, arbitration, the development of ODR resources, development of intercultural negotiation skills, development of Ombudsman programs, and building organizational conflict engagement programs in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He is one of the Editors-in-Chief of the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution. He is also an author/editor of Online Dispute Resolution Theory and Practice, and numerous other book chapters and articles about ODR and ADR. In September, 2017, he retired as the Chief of Staff for the National Mediation Board, and in October, 2017, at the Association for Conflict Resolution annual conference, he received the Mary Parker Follett Award for innovation in dispute resolution.

The Hon Mr. Justice David Barniville – Judge of the Court of Appeal of Ireland
David Barniville was appointed a judge of the High Court of Ireland in December 2017. He was appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal in August 2021. At the time of his nomination for appointment to the Court of Appeal in June 2021 he was the judge in charge of the Commercial Division of the High Court. He was also designated as the Arbitration Judge to hear all arbitration related matters in the High Court and was one of the judges assigned to deal with examinership applications. He was previously the judge in charge of the Strategic Infrastructure List in the High Court (2018-2019).
In July 2018, David was appointed as a member of Ireland’s National Group on the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law (ERA) which is based in Trier, Germany and of the Board of Trustees of BAILII (the British and Irish Legal Information Institute) which is based in London.
David is the immediate past President of the Association of Judges of Ireland and is Senior Vice Chair of the Judges Forum of the of the International Bar Association (IBA).
Prior to his appointment to the High Court, David was Chairperson of the Council of the Bar of Ireland (2014-2016) and was Chairperson of Irish Rule of Law International (IRLI) (2015-2019). He was a member of the Bars of Ireland and of England and Wales (Middle Temple) and a CEDR accredited mediator. He is a Bencher of the King’s Inns in Dublin and of Middle Temple in London. He is a judicial fellow of a number of prestigious international societies, including the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers.

Simon Boehme, COO of Billing Tech
Simon Boehme is COO of Billing Tech. He is the former Vice President of Partnerships for Legaler. He recently served on the State Bar of California’s Access Through Innovation of Legal Services (ATILS) Task Force. Previously, Simon was Head of Operations and Chief of Staff, Trust & Safety at Lime. Simon also co-founded Disputly (formerly LegalWin). Earlier, he founded Magnify, a contract company summarizing the terms and conditions of popular websites (acquired). Simon advises multiple legal tech companies and the Legal Tech Fund. Simon was a member of the Accord Project Dispute Resolution Working Group (building guidelines and open source code for smart legal contracts). He was also appointed by the Obama Administration to serve on the U.S. Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee for Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). He served on NACIQI from 2013 to 2019. As a mediator, he previously led efforts to build the first San Francisco online dispute resolution system for landlord-tenant disputes. He is a Truman Scholar, Coca-Cola Scholar, and Bezos Scholar. Simon studied at Cornell University (BS in Industrial and Labor Relations) and Mitchell Scholar at Maynooth University in Ireland (MA in Mediation and Conflict Intervention). In 2010, he led his hometown high school to win the first Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, resulting in President Barack Obama speaking at graduation (the first sitting President to do so). He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Carissa Boynton – Expert Smartsettle facilitator at iCan System Inc.
Carissa is a senior researcher, trainer and expert Smartsettle facilitator at iCan Systems Inc. Carissa has been employed as a facilitator, trainer and other related positions since 2003 and has been involved in a variety of complex negotiations during that period. She is an expert user of the entire suite of Smartsettle negotiation products from ONE to Infinity. Carissa has a passion for efficiency and fairness that she brings to her work, and cultivates leadership in the community through volunteer involvement at museums, discussion forums and theatre. Carissa is both well read and well traveled, and brings an intelligent global perspective to the company. Her optimistic and professional attitude is beneficial in teaching people how Smartsettle can be used to achieve timely and optimal results in very complex situations.

Pablo Cortés – Professor, Chair of Civil Justice, University of Leicester
Pablo Cortés is a full professor and has a chair of Civil Justice at Leicester Law School where he teaches and conducts research in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), civil procedure and consumer law. He is also an online arbitrator-adjudicator for CEDR’s aviation, telecommunications and water disputes schemes. He has published three books in the field of technology and dispute resolution, including most recently The Law of Consumer Redress (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and prior to that he edited The New Regulatory Framework for Consumer Dispute Resolution (Oxford University Press, 2016). He has been invited to many international conferences and expert meetings, including by the UN Commission for International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the European Commission and the European Parliament (Internal Market and Legal Affairs Committees). He is a fellow of the National Centre for Technology and Dispute Resolutions (University of Massachusetts) and in 2012 he was a Gould Research Fellow at Stanford University. He is a member of the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Taskforce of the International Mediation Institute and of the ODR Advisory Group of the Civil Justice Council, which first proposed the launch of the Online Court in England and Wales. He has been employed as a consultant for a number of organization, including to assist the European Commission during the drafting of the legislative proposals for the ADR Directive and the ODR Regulation.

Fernanda Alves Curbage
Fernanda Alves Curbage is a private and judicial conflict mediator, conciliatior and negotiatior, specialising in real estate, commercial, family and community conflicts. Fernanda has extensive experience in training judges and mediators in both Brazil and Portugal, and she regularly observes, writes and speaks on the development of mediation and dispute resolution. She is currently undertaking doctoral research in International Politics and Conflict Resolution at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Angela Denning, Chief Executive of the Courts Service of Ireland
Angela Denning was appointed as the first female Chief Executive of the Courts Service in 2019. Having studied computer science, she worked as a sub-editor until she joined the Department of Justice in 1995 as an Executive Officer and was assigned to the Courts where she worked in various operational roles for almost her entire career. She was called to the Bar in 2002 and was awarded a Masters in Leadership and Strategy in 2019. She was appointed Deputy Master of the High Court before transferring on mobility for a very brief period to An Garda Siochana and then on promotion to the Government Reform Unit of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Angela leads an ambitious user-centred modernisation programme in the Courts Service taking a digital first approach which aims to improve access to justice – making going to court quicker, easier and cheaper.

Chris Draper – Managing Director, Trokt
Chris Draper, Ph.D., P.E., helps humans make fewer errors when using technology. This expertise was gained through a career of analyzing and reducing the operational risk of how humans interface with technology systems. Chris has been at the intersection of technology and dispute resolution for nearly a decade as the Managing Director of Trokt in Des Moines, Iowa, and as a Venture Partner supporting VU Venture Partners FrontierTech team in San Francisco, California. Chris provides technical support to Department of Education, local Bar Associations, and National Center for State Courts focus and working groups; is Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Dispute Resolution Technology Committee; is Chair of the Working Group One on the ABA ODR Task Force; is a Visiting Scholar on Blockchain Governance for the Indiana University Ostrom Workshop; and is a Fellow with the National Center for Technology in Dispute Resolution. Chris received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Glasgow. His LinkedIn profile can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherhdraper

Aled Davies – Co Founder and CEO, Mediator Academy
Aled first trained as a mediator in South Africa in the late 90’s and over the last 20 years has worked with the best in the field of mediation and dispute resolution – building a network of global thought leaders in the process. After building a successful executive education business, Aled combined his passion for education, mediation and technology to reimagine how education can be delivered to learners around the world.

Gary Doernhoefer – Founder, ADR Notable
Gary Doernhoefer is a 1984 graduate of the University of Chicago School of Law, an experienced general counsel, technology entrepreneur and founder of ADR Notable – the leading technology platform designed specifically for dispute resolution professionals.
Gary launched his in-house career with American Airlines focusing, over nine years, on litigation, antitrust, and government affairs. In 2000, he became the first V.P and General Counsel for the travel website Orbitz guiding the company through antitrust review, product launch and then through an IPO and acquisition in 2004.
Gary next co-founded Accertify, Inc., an online credit card fraud solution. He played a key role in taking the startup company through its development, launch and investment by Intel Capital Corporation to an acquisition by American Express for $150 million in four years.
In 2010, Gary became General Counsel for the International Air Transport Association, the global airline trade association which operates in over 80 countries (IATA). There he led a diverse team of in-house lawyers providing legal services to the trade association and airline industry including work on the development and release of new standardized data formats for the sale of air travel.
In 2014 Gary again teamed up with former Orbitz CEO Jeff Katz and the Boston Consulting Group on a new travel technology concept led the legal formation of Journera, Inc., funding from major airlines and hotel chains, privacy and data protection compliance, and later a Series A round of venture funding.
While still working with Journera, he began to explore the need for technology to support dispute resolution professionals. This led to the creation of ADR Notable, a cloud-based software solution that offers a complete case and practice management platform for dispute resolution professionals. Beginning in 2019, ADR Notable became his primary focus. ADR Notable launched commercial operations at the end of 2020.

Stephen Dowling – Senior Counsel, CEO of TrialView
Stephen is Senior Counsel (trial lawyer) in Ireland, with over 18 years’ experience in commercial and civil litigation. Author of the Commercial Court (Round Hall 2nd Edition), with an MA in Commercial Law from Cambridge University, Stephen is also founder and CEO of TrialView, a complete digital disputes platform which facilitates virtual & hybrid hearings; offering bundle creation, evidence presentation and video integration in one streamlined platform.

Jo De Mars, – Net Neutrals
NetNeutrals is internationally recognized as a leading online dispute resolution program. NetNeutrals EU has been designed to operate within the guidelines as set forth by the EU ADR Directive as a conciliation/mediation/adjudication process. NetNeutrals offers its clients an innovative way to resolve customer and B2B disagreements.
NetNeutrals was established in 2004 in response to a request from eBay to provide ADR for its users. The process, called Independent Feedback Review, continues to handle negative feedback disputes.
Additionally, NetNeutrals has designed bespoke schemes to handle the needs of several e-commerce providers, both Business to Consumer and Business to Business.
Jo DeMars founded DeMars & Associates, Ltd. (DMA) as a national alternative dispute resolution consulting firm managed by the most reputable experts in the business. Located in Waukesha, Wisconsin (US), the firm provided consulting, program design, administration, training and research services to Fortune 100 Companies, national associations, and governmental agencies. DMA was dedicated to resolving disagreements in the most ethical and expeditious manner possible. Each program DMA created was uniquely tailored to deliver the best dispute resolution process for all parties.
NetNeutrals draws on the experience of Jo DeMars in its extensive customer service, regulatory, training and educational experience to formulate programs that uniquely respond to the client’s individual needs. Activities often respond to specific needs in areas or industries that are highly regulated. NetNeutrals projects concentrate on maximizing the mutual interests of the business and consumer communities, striving to build strong relationships in order to develop policy in the public interest.

Alberto Elisavetsky – Expert in New Technologies and Dispute Resolution
Alberto is an evangelizer and researcher in the use of new information and communication technologies for peacebuilding in the digital age. He is:
·        Public accountant – mediator – specialist in distance education
·        Director of the Observatory of Conflict and Postgraduate programme in Cybermediation, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Argentina.
·        Founder and President of ODR Latinoamerica (www.odrlatinoamerica.com), a social network that articulates new technologies with conflict resolution; training entity n°66 certified by directorate of mediation and participatory conflict resolution methods, Ministry of Justice, Argentina.
·        Fellow NCTDR (http://odr.info/)
·        Member ICODR (https://icodr.org/)
·        Chairman of the Negotiation and Mediation Committee of the Professional Council of Economic Sciences of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (cpce)
·        Teacher of introduction to conflict resolution, negotiation, system design for Conflict resolution and online dispute resolution for different universities and tribunals of America and Europe
·        Creator of the Global Registry of Cyber-mediators (http://registrodecibermediadores.com/)
·        Creator of the “Simediar” distance mediation simulation platform
·        Editor of “Online Dispute Resolution Latin America” journal
·        Editor in Spanish of the digital magazine “Mediate.com”
·        Creator of the “Latin American Council for Online Conflict Resolution”
·        Member of the advisory committee of Ex-curia International India
·        Creator of ODR Argentina, Peru, Brasil, Mexico and Spain
·        Director of the book “Mediation in the light of New Technologies”, (Erreius)
·        Ambassador of peace and advisor in mediation of the Honorable Council mil Milenios de Paz Pea UNESCO Foundation
·        Co-author of “online dispute resolution, theory and practice” with compilers: Daniel Rainey, Ethan Katsh, and Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab. (Eleven Publishing)

Eddie Folsom – Airline Captain, major US airline
Captain Eddie Folsom is a senior B777 pilot for a major US Airline. As a Line Check Airman he is responsible for training, mentoring, and evaluating new First Officers and Captains. He has led teams on various safety and security projects and working groups on behalf of his Company’s management team, and in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).
Captain Folsom has held multiple leadership positions with ALPA at the local, Airline and Industry-wide level. These include ALPA MEC Security Committee Chairman, ALPA National Security Council Chairman, and ALPA MEC Central Air Safety Committee Chairman.
Prior to commercial aviation, Eddie served in the US Air Force, where his experience included leadership and technical skills in Forward Air Control, Close Air Support and Combat Search and Rescue missions as a Squadron and Wing Staff Officer and as a fighter pilot, Flight Leader and formal school instructor in the A-10 Warthog. He retired from the USAFR in 2004 as a Lt Col.
Eddie is a graduate of the USAF Academy, Class of 1980. He has a MA from Webster University and has a certificate of Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University, He is continuing his studies towards an MDR. He grew up in San Jose, and lives in San Diego with his wife, Laura and three children.
Captain Folsom has been an effective advocate for various projects throughout his professional life. He successfully lobbied Congress for arming pilots in the cockpit following the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 which led to the creation off the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program.
He championed his airline’s secondary barrier program, which provides an additional layer of protection for commercial jet flight decks. He led the industry-wide Federal Advisory Committee, RTCA SC221, which evaluated current flight deck security procedures, and proposed design guidelines for the secondary barrier for the industry. He lobbied Congress to mandate secondary barriers on all commercial jets in partnership with Ellen Saracini, who’s husband was one of the pilots murdered on 9/11. In 2018 Congress passed the Saracini Aviation Safety Act which mandated secondary barriers for new commercial aircraft.
Captain Folsom was also part of the team that designed the Safety Management System (SMS) for his airline as a part of the FAA’s SMS pilot project.
Captain Folsom is currently working with Colin Rule to develop ODR tools to assist airlines in improving the industry’s customer complaint system. Eddie believes airlines are poised to embrace ODR and other ADR systems which have the potential to transform the relationship between airlines and their customers.

Clare Fowler – VP, Mediate.com
Dr. Clare Fowler received her Doctorate on designing dispute resolution systems from Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education/Organizational Leadership and her Master’s of Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University School of Law. Dr. Fowler serves as Vice-President at Mediate.com and as Director of Caseload Manager. She has worked at Pepperdine Straus Dispute Resolution and UO Law as a Workplace Mediation Professor. Clare mediates and trains, focusing on workplace disputes. Dr. Fowler’s dissertation was a phenomenological study of Workplace disputes. Her current book project, due in Nov 22, is a guidebook for HR directors dealing with high conflict employees. She has been studying mediation since her third grade peer mediation course, and its intersection with technology since her original major in computer engineering.

Xuhui (Michael) Fang – Nanchang University
Xuhui (Michael) Fang is a law professor at Nanchang University (NCU) and an associated researcher at Cyberjustice Laboratory of Université de Montréal. He holds an LLB from Peking University and a JD from Washington University in St. Louis. Michael has taught his Chinese students that ODR can level the playing field for the disadvantaged in the developing countries. In 2011, he introduced Smartsettle’s visual blind bidding to NCU law students by leading them to participate in the e-negotiation competition. In 2016, Michael Fang assisted his students on an interdisciplinary project titled “ODR solves the dispute of sexual harassment on campus” which resulted in them delivering a presentation at the 16th international ODR forum held in Beijing.
Michael has also been a leading advocate for the use of ODR as an appropriate and alternative process for dispute resolution in China. In August 2013, he introduced eBay’s community court to Chinese lawyers in his speech about ODR at Beijing Bar Association, just four months before Taobao formally applied crowdsourced ODR to resolve eCcommerce disputes. In September 2016, Michael Fang co-chaired the 16th international ODR forum held in Beijing which enabled many Chinese experts and leaders from various fields to discuss ODR issues with international ODR experts from different countries. In October 2016, Fang helped set up an ODR process for the International Commercial Mediation Center for the Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing and incorporated the UNCITRAL Technical Notes on ODR (Technical Notes) into the new mediation rule. In 2017, Fang facilitated a visit from western ODR experts to the Hangzhou Westlake Court and Hangzhou Internet Court. Also, Fang has promoted ODR to resolve cross-border e-commerce transaction disputes at E-business Better Service (EBS) , a professional organization authorized by local government officials to build a better e-commerce environment in Shenzhen city.
Michael has also used his expertise and international experience to support the deliberations of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group. In 2015, Michael attended the 32nd session of UNCITRAL Working Group III (ODR). He participated in modifying the introduction of the Technical Notes and ensured that the introduction included ODR elements such as “impartiality, independence, speedy (it was replaced by ‘secure’ in the final session, see below), efficiency, effectiveness, fairness, fast, accountability, independence, simple and transparency” (thus making the acronym for ODR elements “I SEE FAST” ). In 2016, Michael Fang attended the 33rd or the final session of the UNCITRAL Working Group III , serving “double duty” as an observer for the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution (NCTDR) and the China Society of Private International Law (CSPIL). Michael Fang succeeded in making a proposal entitled ” [s]uggestion of introduction of the term ‘ security’ into the outcome document reflecting elements and principles of an ODR process” with support from some ODR providers such as Modria. Because the Working Group had no mandate to introduce any “brand new issues” such as “security”, Michael Fang discussed his proposal with some participants in advance of the session and efficiently advanced his suggestion at the session. Moreover, he facilitated the communication between the delegations of member states of UNCITRAL representing different legal traditions. In 2017, Michael Fang attended the 55th session of UNCITRAL Working Group IV (Electronic Commerce), which discussed “contractual aspects of cloud computing and legal issues related to identity management and trust services”. Since then he has explored the new frontier of ODR in a cloud computing environment.

Kenneth Frank – Brenau University
Kenneth Frank holds a J.D. in law from the University of Colorado and a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from Columbia College. He is the director of the undergraduate degree program in Conflict Resolution and Legal Studies at Brenau University, Gainesville, Georgia. He is chair of the International Intercollegiate Mediation Tournament Board, on the Board of Directors and the Vice President for Education, USA for INADR. He is trainer/consultant for many organizations on conflict resolution and mediation and was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia. He is a co-founder of the consulting group, Transforming Mediation, LLC and a registered neutral with the State of Georgia.

Mary Lou Bryant Frank – Co Founder, Transforming Mediation
Dr. Mary Lou Bryant Frank, Ph.D., M.S., M.Ed., is a psychologist, mediator, trainer, and consultant. She is co-founder of the consulting group Transforming Mediation and has worked as vice president, dean, professor, fellow, and adjunct professor. Her text, “The mind of a peacemaker: The psychology of mediation 2^nd ed.” was listed by Book Authority as one of the top books in conflict resolution for 2022. She publishes in national and international journals and textbooks on peacemaking, psychology, and mediation. She served as president of the International Academy of Dispute Resolution and has worked in over twenty countries.

Ana Maria Maia Goncalves
Ana Maria Maia Gonçalves is a mediation trainer and practitioner and an online dispute resolution professional. She has over 35 years of experience as a business leader in global organizations, as a mediation trainer, mediator and executive coach. She is the founder and president of the Institute for Certification and Training of Portuguese-speaking Mediators (ICFML) icfml.org, a leading organization in mediation in Brazil and Portugal. She has experience in cross-border disputes in Europe, Australia and
the United States. She works with Portuguese universities in the fields of ADR, Mediation, Negotiation and ODR. Being very active across borders and cultures, she has focused her practice in recent years on the impact of online technology on the skills of ADR facilitators and mediators. Since 2015, she has been
the co-chair of the International Mediation Institute ODR taskforce. She has co-authored several papers in the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution and co-launched in 2019 the first ODR Practitioner Certification Program https://odrfoundationstraining.com), available both in Portuguese and English. She is regularly invited as a guest speaker on panels about mediator standards and online mediation in international conferences such as the IBA 2019 Annual Conference in Seoul and the MANE Forum in 2019 in Singapore. As an executive coach and facilitator, Ana works for Center for Creative Leadership
and Lee Hecht Harrison and is part of the team of Neuroawareness Institute. Ana speaks Portuguese, French and English fluently. Ana is a graduate from UAL Lisbon (2008).

Dr. Rolando J. Ortega Hernandez – Law Professor, European University of Madrid
Rolando is Doctor in Commercial Law from the University of Salamanca and Law degree from the Santa María University (Caracas, Venezuela), approved by the University of Salamanca. He accredited ANECA in the category of “doctor assistant professor”. He is the author of the monograph “Alternative mechanisms for conflict resolution by electronic means”, Ed. BOSCH, 2019, as well as co-author of several collective works and author of various scientific articles, with participation in national and international conferences. Likewise, he is a lawyer approved by the National University of La Plata (Argentina). His lines of research are Online Dispute Resolution and out-of-court methods of conflict resolution, access to justice for consumers and users in the information society.

Sara Hourani – School of Law, Middlesex University London
Dr Sara Hourani is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, Middlesex University London. Sara also currently holds a Visiting Lectureship at the University of Aix-Marseille (France). Sara received an LLB degree from Grenoble II University (France), an LLM in International Trade Law and a PhD in Law from the University of Essex (UK). Sara was granted the prestigious UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) PhD scholarship to pursue her doctoral studies and has been the recipient of different grants and awards to carry out her research. Namely, Sara was a John W Kluge Scholar at the Library of Congress in Washington DC which was funded by the AHRC to carry out research in international commercial law. Before joining Middlesex, Sara previously held a Lectureship in Law at the Law Department and CIPPM at Bournemouth University and also taught at the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia. Sara’s research interests are in the areas of international arbitration and international commercial law. More recently, Sara’s work has been focusing on the use of new technologies in online dispute resolution and arbitration. This work has been presented in various fora such as Yale Law School, the UNCITRAL, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Blockchain Technology Conference 2019, the 2018 and 2019 ODR Forums and the Paris Chamber of International Arbitration (CAIP). Sara recently published a co-edited book on Access to Justice in Arbitration with Wolters Kluwer. Sara is also Associate Editor for the Indian Review of International Arbitration.

Ibrahim Hussain – Founder and President, SulhaSolutions.com
Ibrahim Hussain is a highly skilled and globally renowned Imam, Interfaith Leader, Mediator & Arbitrator. He has successfully resolved , complex disputes globally over the past decade, including disputes within charitable, nonprofit and community organizations. He is the first Imam and Islamic Scholar across the world to be awarded the MCIArb designation from The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the world’s leading qualifications and professional body for dispute avoidance, management and resolution. As the founder of the worlds first Muslim ODR organization, Sulha Solutions, he regularly mediates and arbitrates for the Muslim Community globally. He also advises organizations of all faiths in conflict management across the world. Ibrahim obtained certification in Mediation from MDR Associates, certification in Med-Arb & ODR from the ADR Institute of Canada, (ADRIC). He has also successfully obtained certification in Advanced Conflict Management from the University of Waterloo, and certification in Commercial Arbitration from the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society, (TCAS). Ibrahim has served as an Imam, (Muslim Minister of Religion), & Interfaith Leader in the Greater Toronto area and across Canada since 2011. He holds a Masters Equivalent degree in Islamic Theology from the United Kingdom, and graduated from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford in Leadership Studies. He currently resides in the GTA where he continues to serve as a Faith Leader and Interfaith Leader and continues to take part in global interfaith conferences and global peacemaking initiatives with leaders from other faiths to spread more peace, tolerance and cooperation in the world. Ibrahim’s interfaith and peacemaking efforts have been recognized in the global media. Ibrahim is excited to work together with the Faculty of CECM to develop the world’s leading ADR and ODR training for Faith Leaders!

Laura Keily, – Founder and CEO, Immediation
Laura is a barrister (trial lawyer) and entrepreneur with a blue chip legal and business background as a top-tier corporate lawyer, company director, business adviser and in-house counsel for listed corporates. A qualified arbitrator and specialist in corporations law and complex commercial litigation, Laura was awarded Innovator of the Year by the Womens’ Barristers Association in 2020 for her work in pioneering online mediation. Laura was also awarded “Australasia’s Most Influential Lawyer – Changemaker” in 2021 for her work in pioneering online dispute resolution. Laura is founder and CEO of Immediation, the secure and specialised digital legal environment for dispute resolution, justice and legal practice, offering advanced, integrated tools and a panel of over 100 experts to ensure scale, efficiency, access and control.

Zbynek Loebl – Of Counsel, PRK Partners, Czech Republic
Zbynek Loebl works as Of Counsel at PRK Partners law firm of attorneys in Prague, Czech Republic. He is a specialist in online dispute resolution and internet law, IT law, protection of personal data and cybersecurity law. He joined PRK Partners in 2016. Zbynek Loebl headed a team which implemented one of the first online only platforms for resolving disputes (related to .eu domain names and domain names under UDRP rules) called adr.eu (2006). Zbynek also founded Youstice (2011), a pioneering company specialised in cross-border online dispute resolution (ODR) for low-value disputes. He wrote one of the first books on online courts titled Designing Online Courts (The Future of Justice Is Open to All), published by Kluwer Law International in 2019. Zbynek Loebl initiated EU-funded project (EJUST programme) called E-Justice ODR Scheme for digital mapping of e-justice/ODR processes and sub-processes. The project has started in February 2022. Zbynek also manages a project funded by the Czech government to design the preparation of the first online courts in the Czech Republic. In addition, Zbynek manages another publicly funded project for designing and modelling online administrative procedures for traffic fines. Last but not least, he manages PRK team which participates in another publicly funded research project in the Czech Republic to design and develop an ethical distribution system for distribution of critical material during emergency situations like pandemic. In 2020, Zbynek Loebl also started a new international initiative in ODR called Open ODR (www.openodr.org). Zbynek Loebl is a fellow of NCTDR (National Center of Technology and Disputer Resolution) of the US. He has been one of the founding members of ICODR (International organization for online dispute resolution).

Andrew Mamo – Northern Illinois University College of Law
Andrew Mamo joined Northern Illinois University College of Law in 2020 and teaches in the areas of contracts, business associations, dispute resolution, mediation and negotiation. He was previously a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and a Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. At Harvard, Professor Mamo taught negotiation and supervised teams of clinical students in representing clients on a range of dispute systems design projects. Professor Mamo’s research broadly concerns the experiences of disputants within the legal system. More specifically, he studies the history and theory of dispute resolution and negotiation, with a particular focus on the history of dispute resolution practices, the role of technology in dispute resolution, and the professionalization of third-party neutrals. Professor Mamo received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2014, his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011, and his S.B. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004. Prior to returning to Harvard Law School, he worked on cross-border capital markets and project finance transactions at a major international law firm in Singapore, and clerked for Judges Hisashi Owada and Julia Sebutinde at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Janet Martinez – Director, Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School
Janet Martinez is Director of the Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School where she teaches advanced negotiation, dispute system design and alternative dispute resolution law, practice & policy. Martinez practiced corporate law before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she did research, writing, and teaching in negotiation at Harvard University’s graduate schools of business, law, and government. In Cambridge, she was Senior Associate for the Consensus Building Institute, a nonprofit provider of dispute resolution services in the public and private sectors, both domestic and international; she currently serves on its board of directors. Martinez’ current research and consulting focus on dispute system design, online dispute resolution, international comparative dispute resolution. Martinez holds a B.S., J.D., Masters in Public Administration and Ph.D. Recent publications include: (with Lisa Amsler and Stephanie Smith), Dispute System Design: Preventing, Managing, and Resolving Conflict, Stanford University Press, 2020).

Michal Matejka, Partner, PRK Partners, Prague, Czech Republic
Michal Matejka is a Partner at PRK Partners specialising in IT law, intellectual and industrial property law, commercial contract law, international trade and related dispute resolution.
Before joining PRK Partners in October 2018, Michal worked almost 17 years at Baker & McKenzie’s Prague office.
Michal graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague and the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Economics in Prague and passed the bar to become an attorney at law in 2008. In 2018 Michal obtained his qualification as an established European lawyer authorized to provide legal services within the territory of Slovakia.
Michal has extensive experience in representing global and multinational clients in judicial, contractual and regulatory matters. He regularly lectures on ICT and intellectual property law at the Faculty of Information Technology of Czech Technical University (ČVUT) and the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague. Michal is an expert for domain dispute resolution in UDRP proceedings and .cz domain disputes and the author of various scholarly publications and articles in specialist periodicals on topics in his practice areas.
Michal is fluent in Czech and English.

Charles McLaughlin – General Manager, Net Neutrals EU
Charles has considerable IT management and consultancy experience in the private sector as well as serving as head of IT in the Irish League of Credit Unions and with Allianz Insurance. He is General Manager of Net Neutral EU providing high-quality and independent Alternative Dispute Resolution and Online Dispute Resolution Processes to consumers for both domestic and cross border traders and B2B. NetNeutrals is a recognised ADR Entity under the European Union (Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes) Regulations, 2015, and certified in the UK by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, and in Ireland by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. It has also been approved for aviation disputes in the UK by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Morenike Obi-Farinde – Founder, ODR Africa Network
Morenike founded the ODRAfrica Network (odrafrica.com) to serve as a conduit to create awareness and opportunities in the use of technology-supported systems for dispute resolution. She is a Solicitor, Advocate and Notary Public of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with over three decades of practical experience. Morenike regularly sits as Arbitrator both solely and as part of a Tribunal. Morenike is also a CEDR Accredited Mediator. Her foray into ADR began as a quest to find solutions to clients’ needs and improve the chances to access to justice despite the challenges faced in the West African Court Systems. Morenike is part of the Training Faculty and listed on the Panel of Neutrals at the Lagos Multi-Door Court House (LMDC), the first court connected ADR Centre in Africa, as Arbitrator and Mediator. She is Tutor for the Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates (SCMA). She is a Fellow and Tutor of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and currently Deputy Chair of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Tribunal. She is a Fellow of the National Centre for Technology and Dispute Resolution (NCTDR) and Secretary, International Council for Online Dispute Resolution (ICODR) Board.

Joseph Panetta, – Head of Innovation and Marketing US, Immediation
After 25 years in marketing, Joseph was introduced to the legal technology and legal services space only a few years ago. Starting with law firm consultancies he learned how firms think and operate. A brand development role at OnePlace followed where he assisted with the legal CRM brand’s LMA debut in 2019. His tenue continued after Intapp acquired OnePlace. During his tenure there, Joseph ran strategic marketing; thought leadership, and communications. At Immediation, Joseph helms marketing for North America liaising between the various verticals, industry organizations and sales efforts.

Willie Pienaar, – Founder and Chief Executive, Nuvalaw
Willie is a barrister, mediator, and thought leader in the sphere of insurtech. He has worked closely with top insurers in pioneering new ways to settle inter-insurer disputes, and through Nuvalaw’s development of online claims resolution technologies, has been a driving force in industry for positive culture change and process improvement. Willie is passionate about promoting access to justice and about technology’s power to unlock value for organisations within the insurance sector.

Giulio Ravot
Giulio Ravot is a professional member of the China Computer Federation (CCF) and has conducted research in ADR and ODR between Europe and Asia. He has been a research assistant in civil law at the University of Cagliari and has published as author and co-author several articles on conflict resolution. After a master’s degree in law, Giulio trained as a mediator in Ireland, completing a P.Grad.Dip in Conflict and Dispute Resolution Studies at Trinity College Dublin. He is currently working on blockchain and smart contract dispute resolution and researching the role and legal challenges of the latest technologies in digital dispute resolution.

Graham Ross – Head of International Marketing, SmartSettle Resolutions Inc.
Graham Ross is a UK lawyer/mediator specialising in resolving shareholder disputes (www.BoardroomResolve.com) and expert in the field of online mediation, e-negotiation and ODR ((Online Dispute Resolution). He is lead tutor on the leading training course on online mediation and ODR enabling mediators to expand their practices to include disputes for which mediating in person is not possible (such as during the Covid-19 crisis) for ADR professionals. See https://www.ODRtraining.com. He is also a Board Member of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution and a Fellow of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts. Graham is Head of International Marketing at Smartsettle Resolutions Inc the developers of the world’s two leading AI powered dispute resolution tools, Smartsettle ONE and Smartsettle Infinity. Graham is a member of the Civil Justice Council’s ODR Advisory Group, and also a member of the Civil Justice Councils ADR Working Party. He is a Fellow of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts and Board Member of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution. the global organisation that sets the standards for ODR. Graham has been an advisor on ODR to The All Party Parliamentary Group on Alternative Dispute Resolution and been invited to advise the courts in the UK, Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong, Ukraine and Australia and also to the Council of Europe (which resulted in a Resolution to all of its 47 member countries to encourage the development and use of ODR in their justice systems). In 2012 Graham chaired the ODR workshop at the Internet Governance Forum in Azerbaijan. Graham has have undertaken ODR pilot projects with a number of organisations including the UK Ministry of Justice, Paypal, the US National Institutes of Health, the US National Mediation Board and the Law Council of Australia.

Amy Schmitz – Ohio State University
Professor Amy J. Schmitz is a professor at The Ohio State Moritz College of Law and Program on Dispute Resolution as the John Deaver Drinko-Baker & Hostetler Endowed Chair in Law. She is also affiliated with The Ohio State Program on Data Governance and the Divided Community Project. Before teaching at Ohio State, Professor Schmitz taught at the University of Missouri School of Law and Center for Dispute Resolution as the Elwood L. Thomas Missouri Endowed Professor of Law, starting in 2016. Previously she was a Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law for over 16 years. Prior to teaching, Professor Schmitz practiced law with large law firms in Seattle and Minneapolis and served as a law clerk for the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 8^th Circuit. Professor Schmitz teaches courses in Contracts, Lawyering and Problem-Solving, Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), Arbitration, International Arbitration, and Consumer Law. She has been heavily involved in Arbitration and ODR teaching and research for a long time and is a Fellow of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution, as well as the Co-Chair of the ABA Technology Committee of the Dispute Resolution Section and the ODR Task Force.
Professor Schmitz has delivered over 150 presentations and hosts The Arbitration Conversation, a highly regarded podcast that has reached over 100 episodes. She also is a researcher with the ACT Project exploring AI and dispute resolution at the Cyberjustice Lab in Montreal. She has published over 60 articles in law journals and books, is a co-author of the leading casebook, Resolving Disputes: Theory, Practice and Law (Aspen/Wolters Kluwer 2021), the new book with Stipanowich, Arbitration: Theory, Practice and Law (Forthcoming Aspen/Wolters Kluwer 2022) and a book with C. Rule, The New Handshake: Online Dispute Resolution and the Future of Consumer Protection.

Scott Streiner– PhD, FCIArb, Mediator and Arbitrator
Scott is a Mediator and Arbitrator who helps resolve commercial, labour, and workplace disputes; a Senior Advisor with Deloitte, where he focuses on transportation, public sector renewal, and regulatory transformation; and an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University.
Scott transitioned to the private sector in May 2021 after 31 years with the Government of Canada, 14 of them at the Deputy and Assistant Deputy Minister levels. His final public sector role was Chair and CEO of the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), the country’s longest-standing independent, quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator.
During his time at the CTA, Scott spearheaded a comprehensive modernization of all regulations made by the organization and implementation of a risk- based approach to compliance monitoring and enforcement; oversaw a 25-fold increase in the number of applications filed with the CTA (from 800 to 20,000 per year); and led regulatory responses to the pandemic. He also served as Vice Chair of the OECD’s Network of Economic Regulators.
Scott’s previous government positions included Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Economic and Regional Development Policy; Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy at Transport Canada; Executive Director of the Aerospace Review; Assistant Deputy Minister, Labour; Vice President, Program Delivery with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency; Director General, Human Resources at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans; and Director, Pay Equity with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Scott has a PhD in Political Science, an MA in International Affairs, and a BA in East Asian Studies, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb).

Ernest Thiessen – President & Founder of iCan Systems Inc. (creators of Smartsettle)
Dr Thiessen received his PhD degree from Cornell University in 1993, majoring in Water Resource Systems Planning and Analysis in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. While at Cornell University, Ernest developed an efficient methodology to solve very complex negotiation problems. Ernest has led Smartsettle research and development efforts since 1993 to implement the ICANS patent, creating the world’s first secure multiparty collaborative negotiation support system on the Internet. The system is powered by eight algorithms that are fundamental to collaborative negotiations seeking fair and efficient resolutions. The resulting intelligent engine now powers both Smartsettle ONE (for the simplest possible cases) and Smartsettle Infinity (for the most difficult multiparty cases).

Oladeji Tiamiyu – Harvard Law School
Oladeji Tiamiyu is Clinician at Harvard Law School. Oladeji has been a member of teaching teams for Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Workshop as well as an executive-level program at the Harvard Negotiation Institute. He is also a negotiations advisor to social entrepreneurs focused on developing climate change solutions at Harvard’s Innovation Lab. His research has been published with Cardozo’s Journal of Conflict Resolution as well as Ohio State’s Journal on Dispute Resolution. He currently hosts the podcast Convergence where he and his guests explore leading issues at the intersection of technology and conflict resolution.

Tim Wallis – Founder, Trust Mediation
Tim Wallis is the founder of Trust Meditation, and one of UKs most experienced specialist personal injury and clinical negligence mediators. Tim has been mediating claims since 1994, and as well as mediating hundreds of individual claims, Tim is also experienced at high-value multi-party mediations. He consistently demonstrates extraordinary empathy combined with a direct and determined approach that gets results.

Sabine Walsh – Co Founder and Chief Learning Officer, Mediator Academy
Sabine is Co-Founder of Mediator Academy and is focused on its learning design, curriculum development and the academic integration of its products into higher education. Prior to joining the team, Sabine was a practicing solicitor, full-time mediator and passionate educator. She is an academic writer and commentator on dispute resolution and is co-editor of the EU Mediation Handbook (Kluwer). She completed a 3-year term as President of the MII, Irelands national mediation body and during her term as President was instrumental in helping get Ireland’s Mediation Act 2017 across the line.