Ethics for Mediators

This panel, featuring Tara Kozlowski, Executive Director of the NC Dispute Resolution Commission, and Frank Laney, NC Dispute Resolution Commissioner, will help guide mediators and attorneys in mediations through tough situations to help them avoid complaints filed by parties, their counsel, or court staff.

The course will reference the MSC and FFS Rules, along with the Standards of Professional Conduct for Mediators, as a framework to guide the discussion, covering issues such as:

• How to mediate with unethical lawyers in the room?
• Who writes the final agreement at the end of the day?
• Can a mediator have a retainer agreement and what should it say?
• What can and cannot a mediator do to ensure they will collect their fees?

Learning Objectives

• Discuss the ethical challenges that may arise in mediation.
• Analyze the different financial considerations associated with compensating mediators.
• Review the rules governing mediation and how they inform the preceding learning objectives.

Tara L. Kozlowski

Tara L. Kozlowski is the Executive Director of the Dispute Resolution Commission (DRC). Originally from Indiana where she graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from Indiana University, she received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Toledo, College of Law in 2006. Kozlowski is licensed to practice law in Ohio (inactive), Michigan, and became a member of the North Carolina Bar in 2008. Prior to joining the DRC, Kozlowski was in private practice with her primary focus on family law litigation in Wake County. She describes herself as being passionate about alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

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FRANK LANEY

Frank C. Laney was Circuit Mediator for 25 years for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In that role, he mediated more than 5000 cases before retiring in April 2022. He is certified as a Superior Court, Family Financial, District Criminal Court, and Clerk Programs mediator by the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission and certified as a practitioner member of the Academy of Family Mediators.

For eight years, Laney taught mediation in Belarus, one semester of which as a visiting Fulbright Specialist.  More recently, he taught mediators in Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

Laney is the past Chair of the ADR Committee of the North Carolina State Judicial Council, former Mediation Coordinator for the North Carolina Industrial Commission, and serves as Commissioner of the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission. He teaches the later Commission’s required training for mediator certification with Carolina Dispute Settlement Services (CDSS).

Laney has been a member of the North Carolina Bar Association Dispute Resolution Committee/Section since its inception and is a past Section Chair. He chaired the joint Section-Commission committee responsible for the updating and rewriting of Alternative Dispute Resolution in North Carolina, A New Civil Procedure (2012), and he served as an author and co-editor of the book. For his contribution, the Section presented him with the Peace Award.

Laney was a consultant with the North Carolina Bar Association’s Mediated Settlement Conference and District Court Arbitration Pilot Programs. He helped lead the committee that developed the Family Financial Settlement and Clerk Mediation Programs and the committee that crafted the Standards of Professional Conduct for Mediators.

Laney graduated from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina School of Law. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at numerous law schools, works with a Boy Scout troop, and assists the vestry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cary, North Carolina. He is also Past President of the Green Hope Band Boosters, and most years, sings with the North Carolina Master Chorale—which yearly performs with the North Carolina Symphony.