Richard M. Calkins

Richard M. Calkins is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Northwestern University Law School. From 1959-1961 he served as a law clerk to Judge Elmer J. Schnackenberg of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. From 1961-1969 he was an associate and partner of the law firm of Chadwell, Keck, Kayser, Ruggles & McLaren. From 1969-1980, he was a founding partner of the Burditt & Calkins Law Firm. During the years 1980-1988, he served as dean of the Drake University Law School, and from 1988 to 1993, was a partner in the law firm of Zarley, McKee, Thomte, Voorhees & Sease. In 1993 he entered the full-time practice of mediation and arbitration.

Mr. Calkins is past president of the American Mock Trial Association and past president of the American Academy of ADR Attorneys. He also regularly holds classes in mediator training both as an adjunct professor at Drake University Law School and through the Academy. For more information go to www.calkinsmediation.com.

Stanley J. Dale

My experience encompasses several professional and employment fields, but can be narrowed into the areas of education, law, and business/marketing/non-profit organizations. In addition to my Illinois and Texas law licenses and assorted certifications and court admissions, I have two teaching licenses and a real estate brokers license. I am acquainted with ACSA (Association of California School Administrators) and am conversant with topics and issues unique to California colleges and universities. As to law, I have worked as a Senior Attorney for a Fortune 50 international corporation, and as a founding partner of a medium sized law firm engaged in business, immigration, education and labor law. I am currently a part-time court arbitrator and am active in a several Illinois and California alternative dispute resolution organizations.

As to business/marketing/non-profit organizations I have extensive experience in marketing my own former business entities and those of previous law or business clients. When I worked for the United Way, I served as an Ambassador and traveled to various locations to speak about the operations of this national non-profit, as well as assisted member United Way agencies in board organization and development, governmental compliance and fund-raising. I also served as the Manager of Resource Development for a regional behavioral and mental health agency, working in the areas of marketing, philanthropy and local civic and governmental relations. I have extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, am on the ADR committees of the Illinois and Texas Bar Associations, a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and have served as court arbitrator in Illinois since the mid-nineties. In all of my professional capacities, I have developed significant skill sets in the areas of networking, outreach, platform delivery, public relations and service delivery models. I am a marketing-oriented professional with experience in blending conformance to standards while furthering the success of the underlying business transactions. Additionally, I am very familiar with California, particularly southern California, and am the principal of California Area Mediation Association on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles (www.mediate.com/standale).

Joel Daly

Joel Daly became a trial lawyer almost by accident. A career television news anchor, he decided, at age 50, to go to law school after a change in his news program schedule gave him the time to do so. But even then he didn’t expect to practice. That changed in 1988, after he earned a spot on one of Chicago-Kent’s trial teams which won the ABA National Trial Competition. “And then I got an offer to work for Corboy & Demetrio, ‘part-time’” recounts Daly referring to one of Chicago’s premiere plaintiff’s firms. Today he works with Burton Joseph of Joseph, Lichtenstein and Levinson a well-regarded boutique known for its media law expertise.

Daly is a certified mediator, an adjunct Professor and Director of External Relations at the John Marshall Law School. He serves on the Board of Managers for the Chicago Bar Association and is a Trustee for the Center for Disabled and Elderlaw.

Frank Dusek

Frank Dusek has been an arbitrator and mediator since 1999. He has worked on numerous disputes including ones involving complex commercial claims, accountants’ legal liability, securities, construction, and contractual disputes.

Mr. Dusek is a principal shareholder with the accounting firm of Weiss, Sugar, Dvorak & Dusek, Ltd. in downtown Chicago and has been with the firm for over twenty years. His past experience includes seven years with large CPA and consulting firms, seven years as a CFO of a national specialty construction firm and the U.S. Army. In addition to being a Certified Public Accountant, Mr. Dusek is a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Mr. Dusek holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of Illinois at Chicago a Masters of Business Administration from Roosevelt University and a mediation certificate from DePaul University Law School. Mr. Dusek is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Illinois CPA Society, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the American Arbitration Association, FINRA Dispute Resolution and a member of the CPA panel of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution. For more information on Frank Dusek, go to www.wsdd.com.

Gino L. DiVito

Former Illinois Appellate Court Justice Gino L. DiVito retired from the judiciary on August 1, 1997. After initially joining a Chicago law firm as a partner, he co-founded the law firm of Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC in February 2001. He is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer who concentrates on complex civil litigation.
In November 1997, with other retired judges, he co-founded Judicial Dispute Resolution, Inc. (JDR), an alternate dispute resolution company. He conducts mediations and arbitrations in a wide range of subject areas. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Conflict Resolution Chicago-area Chapter and the Board of Directors of the International Academy of Dispute Resolution.

Before entering private practice in 1997, DiVito served for more than 20 years as a judge. From April 1989 to July 1997, he served as a justice on the Illinois Appellate Court, including service as a presiding justice and as a member of the First District's executive committee. From May 1977 to April 1989, he served as a judge of the circuit court of Cook County, presiding over both civil and criminal cases.
As a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney from 1963 to 1977, DiVito served under four state's attorneys and participated in hundreds of felony jury and bench trials and evidentiary pre-trial motion proceedings. From April 1974 to May 1977, he served as the chief of the state's attorney's Criminal Division, supervising more than 330 attorneys in all aspects of criminal prosecution, from screening and trial through the appellate process.

DiVito, who holds the faculty ranking of adjunct professor, has been on the adjunct faculty of Loyola University of Chicago School of Law since 1979. He teaches law students and supervises other faculty members who teach the advanced trial advocacy course each semester at Loyola. Since 1982, he also has taught an annual weeklong course in trial advocacy at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. From 1986 until 2000, he taught new Illinois judges at the statewide New Judges Seminar. He also has taught at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, The John Marshall Law School, and for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, the Illinois Institute for Continuing Education, and the Court Practice Institute.
DiVito has served as the president of the Appellate Lawyers Association (2002-03), the Illinois Judges Association (1993-94), and the

Markey/Wigmore Inn of Court (1992-93), and as the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the American Judicature Society (1999-2002). He presently serves as a member of the Illinois Supreme Court Planning and Oversight Committee for a Judicial Evaluation Program (since 1998). He has served as a member of the Special Supreme Court Committee to Study Supreme Court Rule 23 (2003) and as a member of the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on the Rules of Evidence (1975-79). He has served on the boards of the Chicago Bar Association (1993-95), the Illinois State Bar Association (1984-90), the Chicago Bar Foundation (1994-95), the Appellate Lawyers Association (1997-2004), the Lawyers Assistance Program (1996-98), and the John Howard Association (1997-2001).

DiVito, who received his J.D. degree from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law in 1963, has received numerous awards and honors, including the Medal of Excellence from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law in 1995, the Award of Excellence in the Field of Law from St. Ignatius College Prep in 1997, the Award of Excellence from the Justinian Society of Lawyers in 1997, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois Judges Association in 2002, the Board of Governors' Award from the Illinois State Bar Association in 2000, and the Virgil E. Tipton, Jr. Publications Award from the Illinois State Bar Association in 1999. He is the author of numerous legal articles and is a frequent speaker on a variety of topics related to trial and appellate advocacy and the justice system in general.
DiVito and his wife, Rita, reside in a northern Chicago suburb. They are the parents of three married daughters.

H. Case Ellis graduated from Purdue University (B.S. 1972) and Chicago Kent College of Law (J.D. with honors, 1976).  He is a member of the Board of Governors, Illinois State Bar Association (2001-present), and is a Certified State Court Mediator and Federal Civil Mediator.  He was awarded the Center for Analysis of Alternative Dispute Resolution System “Service to Community Award” 2002.  He is also an instructor at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, lecturing in graduate studies (2003-present).  Finally, he proposed and implemented a pilot program to mediate pro-se small claims disputes in McHenry County, pursuant to which he trained all volunteer mediators, drafted proposed rules and forms, and is now working towards establishing a permanent program.  Mr. Ellis was admitted to the Illinois State Bar in 1976 and to the Federal Trial Bar in 1982.

Linda Fund holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education, a Masters of Arts in Counseling and a Juris Doctorate degree. Ms. Fund is a licensed attorney admitted to the District of Kansas, the State of Kansas Supreme Court, Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and United States Supreme Court. For the last 16 years, Ms. Fund has focused on public sector employment law and labor negotiations. Her experience includes large-scale complex litigation as well as serving as in-house counsel for major agencies for the State of Kansas. For the past four years, Ms. Fund has served as Assistant Director of Human Resources for the University of Kansas with a focus on employee relations. In addition, she currently serves as Interim Director of Equal Opportunity for KU. She is the municipal judge for two small Kansas municipalities, is an adjunct professor for Baker University and is a state approved mediator. The major focus of her mediations has been employment law and other employee relations issues.

Judge Michael Jordan serves as a neutral, doing business as Mediation & Arbitration Services. He served nearly 26 years as a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, hearing almost every type of case. He has served under the Illinois Supreme Court’s Annexed Arbitration program and Supreme Court authorized mediation programs; the mediation panel of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court; the mediation program of the Decalogue Society of Lawyers; arbitration and mediation panels of NASD Dispute Regulation; the arbitration panel for the National Futures Association; the National Mediation Board arbitration panels; the labor arbitration panels for the City of Chicago and the Fraternal Order of Police and for the State of Illinois and AFSME, Council 31, the Teamsters Union, Local 916, the Illinois Federation of Public Employees, and the Illinois Nurses Association. He serves on the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board’s Mediation Roster. His experience also includes service on various regular and expedited geographic labor arbitration panels for the United States Postal Service and its unions. He is a listed member of the American Arbitration Association, Labor Panel.

Judge Jordan was the Editor-in-Chief of the Illinois Bar Journal for two years and was the co-editor of the Bench-Bar Newsletter of the Illinois State Bar Association for 27 years. He has written for many legal publications.

Judge Jordan is a member of the Illinois Judges Association; the Illinois State Bar Association – having served as Chair of the Bench-Bar Section Council, Vice-chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Council, and member of the Corporation, Securities, and Business Law Section; the Decalogue Society of Lawyers (past board member); the International Academy of Dispute Resolution (board member); and the National Association of Railroad Referees. He served during 2003 on the committee appointed by the Circuit Court of Cook County to create a court annexed mediation program for all complex litigation in Cook County, Illinois. He now serves on the advisory committee of the Cook County Circuit Court’s annexed mediation program.

PERCY L. JULIAN, JR. is an attorney, mediator, arbitrator and shareholder in the firm of Julian & Associates, S. C. in Madison, Wisconsin.  He is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Wisconsin Law School.  For more than thirty-seven years, his litigation, mediation, and arbitration, and dispute resolution training and consulting practice has been centered in the area of complex civil rights, employment, and education matters.  He has been involved in cases in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee, as well as Wisconsin.  Among his dispute resolution clients have been the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the EEOC, the Post Office, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) as well as various private companies and individuals.  A former Chair of the State Personnel Board, which functioned as Wisconsin’s Civil Service Commission, he serves as a mediator on Wisconsin’s Special Education panel, as well as a neutral on a number of other mediation and arbitration panels.  He is the former Chair of the Individual Rights Section of the Wisconsin State Bar and is the current Chair of the ADR Section of the Wisconsin State Bar.  He has written and lectured widely on dispute resolution subjects in programs and workshops sponsored by government agencies, law schools, bar associations, corporations, non-profit, and private groups.  In his spare time he is an avid student and practitioner of the Japanese martial art of Aikido and uses principles derived from that art in his practice and in mediation and negotiation training.

Richard W. Knepper

Judge Richard W. Knepper is a 1969 graduate of the University of Toledo and a 1973 graduate of the University of Toledo College of Law. He currently serves as a judge on the Sixth District Court of Appeals of Ohio. Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeals, he served as a Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge from his election in 1982 through 1996. Judge Knepper has instructed at the Ohio Common Pleas Judges Association and the Ohio Judicial College. In 1984, he was a graduate of the National Judicial College, General Studies Course, and in 1999 completed a 40 hour course in Civil Mediation also at the National Judicial College. In 2000, Judge Knepper was certified as a mediator by the American Academy of ADR Attorneys and subsequently appointed as a professor on the faculty of the Academy. Judge Knepper is also a trustee of the International Academy for Dispute Resolution and a member of its faculty. In 2003 Judge Knepper completed the advanced mediation course at the Harvard Law School. Judge Knepper functions as a mediator in the Sixth District Court of Appeals Mediation Program as well as a volunteer mediator in the Hancock County and Shelby County Common Pleas Courts.

Fred Lane

Mr. Lane is a partner in the Chicago litigation firm of Lane & Lane.  He was a former Assistant State’s Attorney for Cook County (Litigation Department), and past president of the following legal associations: Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, American Board of Trial Advocate (Illinois),  and Decalogue Society of Lawyers. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and Society of Trial Lawyers.

Mr. Lane is the author of three multi-volume sets of law books: Lane-Goldstein Trial Technique; Lane Medical Litigation Guide; and Lane-Goldstein Litigation Forms. He is also the Editor of the Medical Trial Technique Quarterly. He is a nationally recognized lecturer on all aspects of Trial Technique and Famous American Trials. He is the founder of the Fred Lane Trial Technique Institute of the Illinois State Bar Association.

Mr. Lane is a recipient of the Illinois State Bar Association’s “Award of Merit,” the highest honor bestowed by the ISBA. He is a Past President and the first recipient of the ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation Training) Federations’ Jurisprudence Award.

Mr. Lane has served as a mediator since 1990 in a variety of cases, and he also lectures and is in the process of co-authoring a book on the mediation process.

Susan E. McCabe

Susan McCabe is in private practice in McHenry County, Illinois, concentrating in family law. She received her J.D. degree from Loyola University School of Law in Chicago, where she received Loyola’s Certificate in Child and Family Law and CALI awards in Mediation and Child Law Legislation. Ms. McCabe limits her services to Collaborative Law representation and Mediation. She serves as a court-appointed family division mediator for the 19th Judicial Circuit in McHenry and Lake Counties and a volunteer mediator for the small claims court in McHenry County for pro se parties. Ms. McCabe is currently President of the Mediation Council of Illinois, on the Board of Directors of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois, and a member of the McHenry County Family Mediation Advisory Council. She was past Mayor of the Village of Cary, Illinois.

Doctor Catherine Bigley McGovern holds a Bachelor in Arts in Theatre Arts from Hunter College in New York. She also holds a Masters in Arts, a Doctorate in Education from the University of South Dakota, a Juris Doctor and Masters in Laws from The John Marshall Law School. Active in the Chicago Arts and Cultural community, Dr. McGovern sits on the Lifeline Theatre Board, Columbia College Dance Board, The Mordine Dance Company and the Stratford Festival Chicago Board and is a Trustee of Mount Marty College, Yankton, South Dakota. She is a former member of The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee. Presently, Dr. McGovern teaches Entertainment Law and Theatre Law at DePaul University College of Law. Dr. McGovern’s consulting practice is concentrated in the areas of Art Law, Entertainment Law and Cultural Property. In addition, she has developed an active practice in mediation and arbitration, especially in the Arts and Cultural Property areas. Dr. McGovern has been trained by The California Lawyers for The Arts and the Academy of Dispute Resolution Attorneys. As an actor and director, Dr. McGovern has a particular sensitivity to the concerns and interests of artists in all disciplines.

Peter McGovern

Professor Peter McGovern joined The John Marshall Law School community in 1987 as Dean and Professor of Law. He has served as Acting Dean at the University of South Dakota School of Law and was Dean at Valparaiso University School of Law and St Thomas University School of Law. He has been teaching in legal education since 1972. Professor McGovern is active in the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association, participates in accreditation inspections of American law schools, and has been Chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association. Professor McGovern is the past president of the National Anti-Vivisection Society, an animal advocacy and education organization with a nationwide membership. In 1995, he served as a visiting scholar at the new Notre Dame University in Freemantle, Western Australia.

Professor McGovern is presently the Director of the Center for International Business and Trade Law and acts as administrative coordinator of the seven Centers for Excellence, including their seven 11.M. programs. He teaches Elder Law, Estates and Trusts, International Commercial Dispute Resolution, and Transnational Negotiations.

Margaret S. Powers

Margaret S. Powers is a divorce coach, child specialist and mediator of family disputes. She also is a family therapist who specializes in working with individuals and couples who are in the various stages of the divorce process and a trainer of the 40-hour mediation skills training.

Margaret’s interest in Collaborative work originates from her commitment to alternative dispute resolution. Her commitment in working with families, lawyers and judges to shift the approach in which we engage families is illustrated in her years in the profession.

As a mediator Margaret mediates child-related and financial issues involved in marriage, divorce, never married couples and same-sex couples. She also teaches family and divorce mediation at Northwestern University. She formally taught at DePaul University Center for Dispute Resolution.

In addition to conducting mediations for private individuals and organizations, she works with a variety of governmental agencies including the United States Post Office, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Key Bridge Foundation mediating cases through the American with Disabilities Act. Margaret also designs Dispute Management Programs for Fortune 500 Companies and Governmental Agencies.

Margaret is a founding board member of The Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois and serves as co-president since it’s inception. She also is the chair of the organization’s Best Practice committee. Margaret currently serves on the board of directors of the International Academy of Dispute Resolution. She also serves for the Mediation Council of Illinois, as Chairperson of the Advisory Council to the Board of directors. Margaret served as a board member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, an international dispute resolution organization. She held an officer’s position as the organization’s secretary. She chaired the organization’s Ethics and Peer Review Committee, and co-chaired the Committee on Diversity and Equity. She is the past president of the Mediation Council of Illinois, a statewide organization for divorce mediators. She has chaired the organization’s Ethics and Peer Review Committee for the last seven years. Margaret is also a trainer and consultant for the National Association of Social Worker’s Alternative dispute program for ethical complaints. Ms. Powers is the recent past chair of NASWs’- Illinois Social Work Mediators Network.

Ms. Powers is a graduate of Loyola University School of social work and a graduate of the University of Connecticut Masters program in Psychology. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio University.

Jacquie Seymour

Jacquie Seymour is the General Secretary of Christ Apostolic Temple, Inc. Fellowship Organization.  She performs corporate and recording secretary functions.

Ms. Seymour graduated from Drake University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.  She is a member of the Iowa Association for Dispute Resolution and Boy Scouts Two Rivers Area.

Elizabeth Felt Wakeman

Elizabeth Felt Wakeman graduated from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1987 with a B.S. in Business Administration/Marketing with Honors. After working in marketing and management for Union Oil Company/Unocal 76, she obtained her J.D. with Honors in 1993 from DePaul University College of Law. She received her Certificate in Dispute Resolution from DePaul University as well. She is a member of the Assembly of the Illinois State Bar Association. She has served as a volunteer mediator in a pilot program organized to mediate pro-se small claims disputes in McHenry County. Since 1993, her practice has emphasized defense of civil litigation particularly that related to personal injury and medical malpractice, but has also included a variety of areas of law. She is a partner with O’Hagan, Smith and Amundsen, L.L.C. where she continues her work as a trial lawyer. She has served on various municipal boards and commissions and is currently a Village Trustee. She is a member of the Assembly of the Illinois State Bar Association.

George M. Wolf

George Wolf earned a B.A. at Wichita State University; a J.D. from the University of Colorado; and an L.L.M., from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in Corporate and Commercial Law. He is certified by the National Judicial College in “Program Development: Administrative Law” and “Program Development: Conflict Resolution”. Mr. Wolf has an extensive background in mediation, conflict resolution and alternative dispute resolution, having trained at the Western Institute for Group and Family Therapy, the San Diego Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, the Mennonite Conciliation Service, the American Academy of ADR Attorneys, CDR Associates, in addition to numerous behavioral science courses at Kansas University. He interned in Conflict Resolution with Kansas Legal Services and is an Approved Mediator in the professional areas of “Core”, “Civil” and “Family” by the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration.

Mr. Wolf is the founder and president of the Common Ground Center for Peace and Reconciliation. He is a board certified member of the American Academy of ADR Attorneys; is a board member of the Mid-America Labor/Management Conference; and a Member of Heartland Mediators. Mr. Wolf is admitted to practice in Kansas, Colorado and the Federal District of Kansas and is a member of the Johnson County and Kansas Bar Associations.