Settle Your Case in 10 Minutes:
Win It With Your Opening

The American Institute of Mediation (AIM) invites you to join the next live installment of our Advanced Mediation Webinar Series, presented by one of the nation’s foremost commercial mediators, Lee Jay Berman.

The first ten minutes of a mediation offer an opportunity that even experienced mediators can overlook. Before the negotiation begins, your introduction can help calm emotions, earn trust, and shift how parties and their lawyers approach the entire day. Yet when that opening becomes routine, is shortened, or is skipped altogether, much of its potential goes unused.

Over the past 15 years, Lee Jay has changed his Mediator’s Introduction more than any other aspect of his practice. Behind deeply listening, he credits those changes most for his success in helping parties reach settlement. In this webinar, he will explore how to move beyond explaining the process to shaping participants’ expectations, helping parties approach their dispute differently, and gently guiding lawyers toward behaviors that support resolution.

Drawing on commercial and other mediations, Mr. Berman will examine how language, delivery, and presence can make an opening more effective. Participants will explore ways to build confidence in the mediator, set the stage for constructive opening statements by counsel, and encourage parties to stay engaged when negotiations become difficult. You will gain practical tools for making those first ten minutes a stronger foundation for everything that follows.

Lee Jay Berman began as a full-time mediator over 30 years ago and has successfully mediated over 3,000 matters, many of which were high-profile cases. Chambers USA has ranked him among the top commercial mediators in the United States every year since 2018 and in Band 1 since 2023. He has been voted by his colleagues into the Who’s Who of International Commercial Mediation every year since 2012 and was named one of the 10 Global Thought Leaders in North America. ADR Times named him to its inaugural “Who’s Who in ADR.” The Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel honored him with its 2024 Counsel of the Year Award for Excellence in ADR. The National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals named him its inaugural “Distinguished Neutral of the Year” in 2017. California’s Daily Journal has twice named him a “Top Neutral.” The Southern California Mediation Association has honored him with its 2026 Excellence in Civil and Employment Mediation Award, its 2021 Cloke-Millen Peacemaker of the Year Award, and its 2010 L. Randolph Lowry Award for his work as a mediator, trainer, and thought leader in the field.