I’m Diane Levin, a mediator, conflict resolution trainer, and coach. As a mediator since 1995, I have helped litigants and private clients resolve disputes involving business, tort, real estate, and family/family business issues, and serve on numerous mediation panels, including the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In tough economic times, I know that talking things out can save not just money but also strategic relationships.

Teaching people how to resolve their own disputes provides an important focus for my work. An experienced trainer, I have taught thousands of people from different settings and cultural backgrounds to resolve conflict, negotiate better, or become mediators — from lawyers from Bulgaria through the United States Agency for International Development to Fortune 500 executives for clients that have included Coca-Cola Enterprises. In addition, I am a Qualified Administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, a tool which can be used to assist organizations build more effective teams and manage conflict more competently.

My profession of origin is the law: as an attorney I practiced tort, municipal, labor/employment, and probate law for both sides of the legal aisle. It gave me an appreciation for seeing things from all angles. I’m also an avid experimenter when it comes to digital technology. An early adopter, I have been blogging for four years and advise fellow professionals on social media and web design and strategy.

Writing is an important component of my professional life, giving me a creative outlet to examine issues and ideas relating to the resolution of disputes or negotiating business and interpersonal issues. My articles on ADR have appeared in professional publications such as Lawyers Weekly, American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Magazine, and The Complete Lawyer. I explore dispute resolution and negotiation at the crossroads of law and social science at the award-winning blog MediationChannel.com, featured at the premier ADR web site, Mediate.com.

Public service matters to me, and I am committed to finding ways to support the administration of justice or raise public awareness of alternatives to litigation for the amicable resolution of disputes. I have served on several non-profit boards of directors of organizations serving the needs of communities, including four years with the Association for Conflict Resolution’s New England Chapter. I am a past appointee to the Massachusetts Trial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution, which I continue to advise on digital technology and the web, and was recently appointed a fellow of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, where I serve on the IOLTA Grant Advisory Committee, which steers funding toward non-profits serving the legal needs of the disadvantaged.

I’m a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian Language, and earned my J.D. cum laude from Suffolk University Law School in Boston.