[ Silence ]
>> You think over a few years that practice law originally as a litigator that the uncertainty,
the delays, the costs of litigating
in a conventional courtroom, there must be a better way.
There might be a better way through voluntary mediation, negotiation to work out disputes
without years of controversy in the courtroom.
And that led me to conclude that I'd feel better about myself and my profession by engaging
in alternative dispute resolution.
[ Silence ]
Well I grew up in Massachusetts at a time when a fair haired son of Massachusetts was President
of the United States, John F. Kennedy.
And he always said that government is a noble undertaking.
The public interests is a worthy professional objective
and that every individual despite standing in station can make a difference.
And I took that to heart from the very beginning and my own personal code tells me
that I should try as best as I can,
professionally as a lawyer, to give back to the community.
And that's sort of driven a lot of what I do.
[ Silence ]
Oh my goodness.
I'm an expert in human nature; 9/11 Fund, BP Oil Spill Fund, GM Ignition Switch Fund,
Boston Marathon, New Town Connecticut, you learn that people who are innocent victims
of tragedy react in thousands of different ways.
That reaction to tragedy is as diverse and complex as human nature itself.
And if you take on one of these assignments that I have taken on,
brace yourself because you're going to get a tremendous amount of heat, emotion, and anger.
It goes with the territory.
[ Silence ]
Anytime you build a program that's going to compensate,
you guaranteed build it and they will come.
And you have to build in to each of these programs some sort of device to prevent fraud.
To detect it.
Because nothing will undercut the credibility of these programs more
than payment of fraudulent claims.
So in every one of them, we have anti-fraud units designed to fair it out
and focus and detect fraudulent claims.
[ Silence ]
I think mediation has a role to play, an increasing role to play.
I think there's more and more recognition that litigation is costly, expensive,
time consuming, uncertain result.
You don't know what a judge and jury will do.
Mediation as constructive as it is will never replace the American legal system
and the adversary system.
You pick your lawyer.
I'll pick my lawyer.
Judge and jury will decide.
That approach of trial by battle is so ingrained in the history of our country
that it'll always be a major part of dispute resolution.
Having said that, there is an ongoing role to play for mediation, arbitration,
and other forms of dispute resolution. ------------------------------ff5f2310346c--