Association of Attorney-Mediators upcoming events

Fall Virtual CLE Seminar (October 30, 2026)

Fri, 30 Oct 2026 13:30:00 GMT

Our Fall Advanced Attorney-Mediator Training will be held virtually on Friday, October 30, 2026.

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Practical Skills. Fresh Perspectives. Real-World Mediation.

Join the Association of Attorney-Mediators for an engaging, all-day virtual seminar packed with practical strategies, timely topics, and valuable CLE credit all from the convenience of your office or home.

This year’s program brings together experienced mediators and industry professionals to explore the issues and challenges impacting mediation practice today. The lineup includes a mock mediation and interactive discussion, an ethical scenarios panel, a unique look at overcoming impasse by using strategic pauses and distraction to help unlock new solutions, and a timely discussion of pro se parties in mediation in today’s world of AI. We’ll also explore insurance coverage and mediation, including how to identify insurance issues and incorporate them into your mediation strategy, with a practical look into the world of insurance coverage.

Whether you’re looking to strengthen your skills, earn CLE credit, explore new approaches, or gain insight into issues that arise in your mediation practice, this program offers a full day of practical education and ideas you can take back to your practice.

We anticipate approval of the course for at least 6.0 hours of CLE credits, including ethics and bias, in many states. MCLE information to be updated (scroll down). *Final session details and agenda subject to change.

Fall CLE26 Agenda.pdf

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We are proud to feature a fantastic lineup of speakers this Fall, including:

Courtenay Bass

Trey Bergman

Robert W. Berliner, Jr.

Ricardo G. Cedillo

Paul Clote

Ryan Downton

Laura Frase

Susan Guthrie

Felicia Harris Hoss

Joe Marrs

Sylvia Mayer

B. Adam McGough

Brandy Peery

Ross Stoddard

Lorna Steuer

Andrew Tolchin

Paul Van Osselear

Learn more about our speakers: AAM Speaker Bios Fall CLE 2026.pdf

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Registration Fees

Regular Rate: AAM Member registration fee is $250 and Non-Member fee is $350

Please note that $100.00 of the non-member registration fee (the difference between member and non-member registration fees) can be applied toward AAM’s $275.00 annual membership dues if you decide to join within one year of the training. Membership includes a group mediator/arbitrator professional liability insurance policy.

**Registration closes at 11:59pm CT on 10/29/2026 No same-day registrations will be allowed. This is a change from our past in-person conferences, so please register in advance!**

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MCLE Credit:

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 progress - to be updated. We anticipate requesting credit of up to 6.75 hours of CLE/CME, including 3.50 ethics in many states.

Arizona: The State Bar of Arizona does not approve or accredit CLE activities for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirement. This activity may qualify for up to 6.75 hours including ethics toward your annual CLE requirement for the State Bar of Arizona.

Arkansas CLE and CME: Application in process

California: Application in process

Colorado: Application in process

Florida CME: This course is eligible for up to 6.75 CME hours. Mediators are required to self-report those hours applicable to their areas of certification at the time of their renewal. For more information on the CME requirement, visit, www.flcourts.org, and select “Alternative Dispute Resolution/Mediation.”

Illinois: Applied and pending

Indiana: Application in process

Kansas CLE: Approved for 8.0 CLE hours, including 2.0 ethics. Activity No. 241974.

Kansas CDRE: Application in process

Kentucky: Application in process

Missouri: Approved for 8.1 total hours, including 4.2 ethics hours. Program ID 802766.

North Carolina: Application in process

Ohio: Application in process

Texas: Approved for 6.75 hours, including 3.50 ethics hours (Course 174335363)

Wisconsin: Application in process

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 October 30, 2026 to ensure that you are able to join the seminar on time and without any technical difficulties.

Recordings and Podcast Notice:

By participating in this program, you acknowledge that the sessions will be recorded and that questions or comments you share will be included in future recordings, podcasts, or related educational materials. By asking a question or making a comment, you consent to the recording and use of your contribution in these formats.

For Session 1 with Susan Guthrie, the recording will be used for The Practice Playbook Podcast. Participants who ask a question and would like to be acknowledged may request credit in Susan Guthrie's podcast show notes by typing in the chat box during Friday’s program.

If you have questions, please let the program organizers know.

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Handouts/Materials:

We are in the process of developing a PDF packet of materials that will be available to all attendees and sent via email prior to the event. Please keep an eye out for an email in your inbox from the AAM Office.

If you do not receive an email by October 29th with the handout packet, please be sure and check your spam folder/junk mail. In the past, some of the event emails sent from the AAM Office have been held in recipient's spam folders and have not made it into the recipient's inbox. Please email the AAM Office if you do not receive the email communication about the event. Thank you!

You will receive a confirmation email upon completing registration, and you will receive a secondary follow-up email during the week of October 26th with all pertinent information for log-in and handouts. The informational email will be resent the evening of Thursday, October 29th and early Friday morning before the start of the meeting to ensure the information is at the top of your inbox.

Mediating Commercial Litigation Cases presented by the Illinois Chapter (November 05, 2026)

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 18:00:00 GMT

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.

MCLE Application Status:

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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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2027 Annual Meeting and CLE Seminar (April 01, 2027)

Thu, 01 Apr 2027 22:00:00 GMT

SAVE THE DATE!

Our Spring 2027 Annual Meeting and Advanced Attorney-Mediator Training will be held on April 2, 2027! We will host a welcome reception on Thursday, April 1st. The venue is TBD but will be in Texas. Stay tuned for more information!

Registration will open in early 2027.

Interest in speaking at this event? Please complete our online speaker submission form by clicking here or email the AAM office by clicking here.