Opening Doors to Resolution: A Mediation Podcast Steven Schulwolf

The Supreme Court has only had seventeen men serve as Chief Justice. Chicago attorney Dan Cotter writes about all of them in The Chief Justices: The Seventeen Men of the Center Seat, Their Courts, and Their Times. While legal theory instructs lawyers to analyze the law and not the circumstances surrounding its creation, Cotter embraces an overall historical approach. Many Supreme Court justices have been defined by the landmark rulings they delivered. Cotter shows how some rulings, like Dre…

Steve discusses all aspects of mediation with fellow mediator, Winter Wheeler. The two discuss their transitions from experienced litigators to full-time mediators, including their mediation philosophies and building their practices. The two discuss mediation via Zoom, anti-bias standards for mediators and the importance of language and its impact on the legal system, focusing on the African-American vernacular. 

A bedrock principle for mediation is its confidentiality. Arguments made at mediation are typically not admissible in court. Nationally renowed mediator, Jeff Kichaven, has been virtually touring the country presenting a provocative theme: your mediation might not be confidential. Jeff tells Steve that whether a mediation is confidential is determined by the court hearing an attack on confidentiality and if it is a different forum from where the mediation took place, which Restatement that…

Old school football fans often complain about celebrations after touchdowns grumbling “act like you have been there before.” The COVID-19 pandemic has altered how the legal system administers justice. Seasoned trial attorneys who are poised and confident in front of judges and jurors are learning how to present evidence via Zoom. Lawyers are forced to act like they have been there before while navigating unchartered waters. As more and more arguments and trials are conducted via Zoom, t…

Steve talks with the Honorable Bryan Chapman, 18th Judicial Circuit Dupage County, Illinois. Judge Chapman is one of the few judges nationally who has rendered a decision in an insurance coverage case for COVID-19 business losses and he discusses the urgency, significance and his approach for overseeing such a nationally prominent case.

Judge Chapman discusses why he finds being a judge a fascinating and rewarding job and what he misses from his private practice days. Judge Chapman pro…

In order to survive the deluge of data and myriad of decisions we make every day, humans adopt short-cuts, or heuristics. Unfortunately, we often rely on flawed biases and stereotypes resulting in poor decisions. In an effort to make sense of it all Steve sits down with Shari Belitz, founder of Shari Belitz Communications. The two discuss how psychology impacts litigation and settlement. As a mediator, Steve discusses how it is important to encourage parties to slow down their thought proce…