Mediating Commercial Litigation Cases presented by the Illinois Chapter

We hope you can join us on November 5, 2026 for Mediating Commercial Litigation Cases, presented by the AAM Illinois Chapter.

Thursday, November 5, 2026 • Held Virtually by Zoom

Noon - 1:45 pm CT / 12:45 - 2:45pm ET / 10:00 am - 11:45am PT

Course Description:

Litigants arrive emotionally and settle analytically. The mediator's central task in a commercial case is to guide that transition, which means diagnosing the real barrier behind the stated one, managing authority and personality, and protecting party self-determination throughout.

Joe Field offers a practical, sequential walk through a commercial mediation organized around its three phases: Pre mediation, the day of mediation, and everything that follows. Pre mediation builds trust and ripens the case through individual caucuses and candid conferrals. The day itself deploys facilitative, evaluative and hybrid techniques to break impasse and capture terms. The final phase keeps the mediator engaged to convert deal points into definitive documents and to manage the redline disputes that so often follow.

Rather than treating impasse as a wall to push against, the session reframes it as a diagnostic problem. Impasse may be informational, valuation, authority, emotional or attorney driven, and each type calls for a different intervention. Participants will leave with tools they can use in their next session, including reality testing scripts, decision tree and bracketing techniques, mediator's proposals, and methods for expanding a purely monetary negotiation into noncash terms that unlock settlement. The session gives particular attention to two challenges every commercial mediator faces: Managing difficult or high ego counsel without entering a power struggle and handling the ethically fraught territory of post settlement drafting disputes, including competing redlines, the two hat problem, mediation privilege, and whether a mediator should ever become the decision maker on disputed terms. It closes with what Joe calls Litigation Concurrent Mediation, the voluntary engagement of a standing mediator to run alongside a pending lawsuit, resolving discrete interlocutory disputes as they arise and probing for settlement across the life of the case.

What Participants Will Take Away

• A framework for diagnosing the type of impasse before selecting an intervention.
• Reality-testing and reframing scripts for use with plaintiffs, defendants, and difficult counsel.
• Practical techniques for breaking valuation and authority impasses, including decision trees, brackets, and mediator’s proposals.
• An approach to capturing essential settlement terms before the parties leave the room.
• Ethical guidance on caucus confidentiality, evaluative feedback, and post-settlement drafting disputes.

About the presenter: Joseph A. Field is a founding member of Field Jerger LLC in Portland, Oregon, an AV-rated firm known for sophisticated representation in complex commercial, bankruptcy, and environmental litigation. After a career specializing in complex, multi-party cases before federal, state, and bankruptcy courts, he is now re-dedicating his professional time to service as an arbitrator and mediator and is joining the NAM panel of neutrals. His portfolio spans commercial, corporate, partnership, real estate, securities fraud, and financial fraud matters, including work for Berkshire Hathaway in multi-forum insurance litigation and the resolution of a $63 million international arbitration award that spilled into four years of multi-state litigation. He currently serves as co-counsel for the receiver in the Equilus Receivership, Washington State’s largest securities fraud case. He is a graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School and has been named to Super Lawyers every year since 2019.

Can't make the live program? We plan to record and offer this as an on-demand viewing course.  The on-demand course will be available for registration after the program ends.

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Registration Fees

This workshop is offered at no additional cost (free) for current AAM Members.  Non-Members can register for a $35.00 fee. 

Interested in joining AAM?  Click here to learn more AAM Membership includes a group mediator/arbitrator professional liability insurance policy.

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MCLE Credit:

Please note that this course may not be approved for CLE credit in all states but AAM will make application.

MCLE approvals will be published on the website (below) as they are received. CME credits will be applied for in the states that require CME. 

AAM will be pleased to facilitate obtaining MCLE credit in other states.  Please contact us as soon as possible (1-800-280-1368) or aam@attorney-mediators.org if you would like our assistance in this regard.

MCLE Application Status:

In order to comply with state CLE/CME requirements, attendance will be tracked based on webinar attendance timestamps and a record of attendance form. Interactivity methods such as polling, Q&A, verification codes and surveys will be implemented to ensure audience engagement and to comply with live online CLE/CME course requirements.  A Record of Attendance form must be completed by each attendee wishing to receive CLE/CME credit.  A link to the Record of Attendance form will be sent via email to each attendee.

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Technical Details: 

In order to access the webinar, you will need to download the Zoom application on your computer or device.  New to Zoom? Click here for a handy one-pager on how to download the Zoom application.      

Please be sure and update your previously installed Zoom application prior to November 5, 2026 to ensure that you are able to join the seminar on time and without any technical difficulties.

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