Focus Groups

Focus/Listening Groups Project

For the last two years the WSBA ADR Section, together with the KCBA Collaborative Law and Dispute Resolution Sections, has been convening focus/listening groups of lawyers, mediators and other ADR practitioners. These are usually small groups of 8-12 people who have been individually invited to participate. They have met for ninety minutes to discuss trends and challenges in their areas of practice.

The project's purpose was for us as bar sections to hear practitioners talk about their areas of practice without preconceived ideas of how ADR works - or doesn't work - in their experience. We do not steer the conversation toward issues of dispute resolution but the conversations often trend that way.

There have been groups relating to Trusts & Estates, Family Law, Collaborative Law & Mediation, Land Use, the Uniform Collaborative Law Act, just to name a few.

Though only convened for one meeting, some groups have chosen to meet again, even several times. One group found their interaction so useful, to act on their ideas they formed themselves into the Land Use Mediation Group. It is now a standing committee of the WSBA ADR Section.

This project is the subject of a workshop presented at the 18th Annual Northwest Dispute Resolution Conference.

Would you be interested in participating in a focus group? Just leave a note below and we'll be in touch with you. Or you can directly contact Alan Alhadeff, ADR Section Executive Committee member.