“The entire legal profession (lawyers, judges, law school teachers) has become so mesmerized with the stimulation of the courtroom contest that we tend to forget we should be healers of conflict. For many claims, trial by adversarial contest must, in time, go the way of the ancient trial by battle and blood. Our system is too costly, too painful, too destructive for a truly civilized people.”
—Warren E. Burger, former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court
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John A. Gromala has been providing mediation services since 1992 when he retired from the practice of law with an AV Martindale-Hubbell rating. His mediation experience includes a full range of litigated matters except family law. In addition to mediating civil litigation, trust and will contests, he has mediated matters involving banking, business, commerce, construction, crisis management, dissolution of corporations and partnerships, employment, environmental and land use issues and securities transactions.
John is recognized nationally and internationally as an expert in the emerging field of “preventative mediation” that he and his colleagues at BMC Associates in Arlington Virginia have pioneered (www.bmcassociates.com). The ABA and other professional organizations have published articles coauthored by John and he has been a speaker at numerous ABA and other professional conferences in the United States and Europe. Some of the articles are reproduced on this site. Hard copies are available on request.
The “Partnership Charter” process has enabled business and professional partners to deal with potentially divisive issues before they explode. The “Holistic Estate Planning” process, used by attorneys in conjunction with traditional estate planning, substantially reduces the risk of probate, trust and malpractice litigation.
Some of John's presentations include:
- ABA – Section of Dispute Resolution annual conference, San Francisco
- ABA – Mid-year conference, Philadelphia
- ABA – Family Matters conference, Boston
- European Mediation Symposium, Austria
- Hawaii Estate Planning Council
- Houston Bar Association Section on ADR
- Lecturer – Masters Program in Mediation, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
- Mediation Center of the Pacific, Honolulu
- ATTA & Washington Univ. Law School (St. Louis) “Mediation Advocacy”
- Northwest ADR Conferences – U. of Washington School of Law (Seattle)
- Partners Czech – Prague
- Partners Polska – Warsaw
- Regional and International ACR (Formerly SPIDR) conferences
- San Francisco Mediation Society
- U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, Tucson
Some of John's prior positions include:
- Board Chair for a premier performing Northern California Bank
- Fellow – American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
- Managing Partner – Harland & Gromala law firm
- Member – executive committee, Trusts and Estates Section, California Bar
- President – Humboldt County Bar Association
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