from staff
The Second Annual Northeast Florida CME (Continuing Mediation Education) Seminar for Mediators was held recently at the Florida Coastal School of Law.
“It was a chance for a lot of local mediators to get together and exchange information as well as teach each other,” said Gregg Wirtz, a panelist at the seminar. “Locally, there hasn’t been any live seminars, so people would have to travel out of town to get the credit. We wanted to present an opportunity that made getting the credit more economically feasible.”
The day-long seminar provided eight hours credit for mediators and seven hours credit plus two hours ethics credit for lawyers CLE (Continuing Legal Education), which was attended, by over 50 people. The mediators’ hours included two hours of domestic violence, one hour for diversity and four hours in mediator ethics which are now required by the Florida Supreme Court.
The seminar was moderated by Jake Schickel of Coker Schickel and it continued to be interactive throughout the day. Speakers and panelists were attorneys Blane McCarthy, Amy Van Velzor, Laura Ferrante, Mike Mattson, Gregg Wirtz and Terry Schmidt.
It was well received by all, and everyone unanimously agreed that it should be held each year, especially with credit for both mediators (CME) and lawyers (CLE), Next year’s seminar will be held May 20, 2010.
“It was good to have mediators and managers there to talk about what works and what doesn’t work,” said Laura Ferrante, panelist. “There was some good discussion and information.”