New Mediation Pilot Program to Address Shortage of Minority Mediators

April 9, 2009

Capital University Law School and Darden Restaurants today announced the creation of a mediation pilot program designed to increase opportunities for minority mediators to serve in employment mediations. The program, the first of its kind, will be administered through Capital University Law School’s minority alternative dispute resolution efforts, led by Professor Floyd D. Weatherspoon.

Since 2002, Capital University Law School has been committed to addressing the growing need for minority dispute resolution practitioners who are under-represented in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), as well as promoting conflict management skill-building through its training institutes and national conferences.

The mediation pilot program, which will operate under the name of Conflict Resolution Diversity Initiative (CRDI), will initially provide qualified rosters of minority mediators to Darden Restaurants for mediation cases arising in Ohio and its contiguous states. The long-term goal will be to provide national rosters to other companies who wish to use CRDI to facilitate their mediations.

Implementing practical steps to eliminate barriers for minority mediators has long been an objective for Weatherspoon. “I’m hopeful that the creation of this mediation pilot program will open the eyes of everyone in the ADR and legal communities that real barriers exist for minorities to be proportionately represented as ADR neutrals,” says Weatherspoon. “Until more steps are taken to correct it, like this pilot program, advancement in this area will continue to stagnate.”

Darden Restaurants, the world’s largest full-service restaurant operating company, approached Weatherspoon and Capital University Law School almost two years ago about their interest in serving as a facilitation service that could provide qualified minority mediators for its internal dispute resolution mediation cases. Darden’s interest was enhanced by the Law School’s proactive attempts to equip minority ADR professionals with skills and knowledge through its national conferences and training institutes, as well as their ongoing efforts to maintain discussion in the ADR community about the real problem of under-representation of minority professionals.

“Minority ADR professionals repeatedly voice frustration and concern about their lack of participation on large national facilitation service panels,” says Jeremy Williams, Manager of Dispute Resolution for Darden Restaurants. “They are either not seated on panels because they’re told they lack experience or if they are fortunate enough to be approved to be on a panel, they are infrequently or never called to serve.

“Likewise, we have seen a lack of representation of minority neutrals on panels that have been provided to us by the facilitation service providers we use. Our experience in cases we have mediated is the frequency in which people of color serve as neutrals for us is not as high as we would like. As a company that champions diversity and whose own workforce is highly diverse, we saw a need for a supplier to provide neutral facilitation services that could address this concern.”

For Darden Restaurants, this pilot program not only supports one of its core company values – diversity – it also makes common sense.

“With a workforce of almost 180,000 people, we recognize that occasionally disagreements may arise regarding their employment,” says Melissa Ingalsbe, Director of Dispute Resolution for Darden Restaurants. “The neutrals who provide assistance in trying to resolve these concerns should be representative of the diversity of the employees who work in our restaurants. We’re very excited Capital University Law School has created a resource to increase the opportunities for minority neutrals to serve on Darden employment mediation cases.

Capital University and Darden agree that this relationship is poised for success. Both share a common purpose of increasing minority involvement in the ADR community. Given the Law School’s achievements in this area, coupled with Darden’s commitment to embracing individual differences among its guests, employees, business partners and others in the communities in which it operates, both parties anticipate a successful pilot program that hopefully can become a model for other companies.