Michelle brings 30+ years of employment litigation, with significant trial experience, and trusted compliance advice to the settlement table, not only as BigLaw defense counsel, but also as counsel for plaintiffs/employees.  Michelle was also a juror in a 3-week employment trial that resulted in priceless insight that she regularly uses to help resolve disputes.  Michelle successfully completed The Employment Law Mediator Training program at Cornell University’s New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations (2019) and is an Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH).  Her extensive trial experience makes Michelle a rare breed amongst her contemporaries, and she brings this unique perspective of understanding to the wide range of dynamics at play in mediations, including insurance coverage and adjustors.

Given her work experience, Michelle’s sweet spot is all aspects of employment disputes.  These involve harassment and discrimination, wage and hour, including PAGA and class actions, and breach of contract claims, including those not necessarily employment related.  One niche area that Michelle has considerable experience with is household employees, which include special rules for nannies, personal assistants, drivers, estate managers and the like.  She conducts half-day, full-day and evaluative mediations (extensive deep dives with trial considerations) and endeavors to make herself available on a much shorter lead time than many of her fellow mediators.  Michelle’s preparation time before the mediation is not limited, and thus generally involves several hours and various telephonic and video meetings with all the parties and counsel before the day of mediation.  Michelle also brings her love of math to her mediations, preparing her own critical damages analysis, risks analysis and settlement scenarios, which she of course shares with the participants.

A particularly good deal for the parties and for her is a half-day mediation, set from 10 am to 2 pm, with “not limited” time before the mediation day, and reservation of the remaining day – at no cost to the parties – and billed on an hourly basis only if needed.

Michelle’s personal favorite is a deep dive analysis, which often comes to her when the parties are fairly close to trial and may occur when a prior mediation did not result in settlement.  This allows her to: (1) watch all the principal party depositions and analyze credibility issues; (2) watch/read all depositions of key witnesses and analyze credibility; (3) review each sides “hot docs”; (4) detailed discussions of opening statements; (5) detailed discussions of motions in limine and the impact of such motions; (6) detailed discussions of jury instructions and their impact on trial; and (7) evidentiary issues and challenges regarding authentication of trial exhibits, among other evaluations.  The fee for a case-by-case deep dive/evaluative mediation is customized and agreed upon with the parties at the outset.