Texas Bar Journal March 2010 | Volume 73, 3 Blogging and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have quickly become a part of our daily lives. This month, the Texas Bar Journal examines the role social media is playing in a changing legal landscape. In this issue, you can find ways to effectively utilize social media in your law practice while ensuring you comport with the ethical rules that guide the legal profession. This issue features an interesting article entitled “Internet Jurisdiction Makes Life Interesting” written by Peter S. Vogel, contributor to this blog. (download the article here) The magazine is available online here.

Mark your calendars! the ABA Section of the Dispute Resolution’s 12th Annual Spring Conference is just around the corner: Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference April 8 – 10, 2010 Hyatt Regency Embarcadero San Francisco, CA To view the conference website, click here. To download the conference brochure and registration form, click here. Karl will be attending the conference and will be happy to meet you! please let us know if you will be attending.

By Holly Hayes Richard J. Webb, a guest-blogger on Disputing and author of the Healthcare Neutral ADR Blog, featured last week an excellent post on how the health care reform debate would look if it was mediated. Here is an excerpt: …. Leaving aside all of the ways in which the healthcare reform debate does not resemble the setting required for effective mediation, I began to imagine what I would do if thrust into a room with a commitment from both sides to mediate in good faith. Having reviewed the parties’ respective positions on numerous, individual proposals for reform, I first thought that there must be a way to parse and compromise among these proposals to reach a mutually acceptable outcome. But the more I thought about it, the clearer it became that such an effort would fail. I had an intuitive sense of why it would fail, but I struggled to explain that result in terms familiar to traditional mediation theory. In fact, I started a blog post on this subject, but put it aside, unfinished. Shortly after that, I read a description of the Frank Sander Lecture to be given by Professor Lawrence Susskind as the opening plenary of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s Annual Spring Conference on April 8th: “Values and Identity Conflicts: Proposing a New Dispute Resolution Doctrine.” The summary, which appears in the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s February Just Resolutions Enews (members only), turned on the light bulb in my head. Read the full post here. We appreciate Mr. Webb sharing his “light bulb” moment and welcome your comments on how the health care reform might look if it was mediated. Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at: holly@karlbayer.com.

The ABA Section of Dispute Resolution announced the 2010 winners of its First Annual Mediation Video Contest on YOUTUBE. The First Prize Winner was “Consider Mediation” submitted by: Suzie Hollander, Susan Cox, Joanna Belbey, Elizabeth Bowers, Patricia Dineen, Amy Russ, Raymond Kramer, Darryl Scipio, Kenneth Andrichik, Jaleel Mosquera, Cassandra Georges, Robert Hollander, Evelyne Matthews, Arthur T. Matthews, Rosari Domenick, Julie Crotty. Check it out! Stay tuned to Disputing for the Second Prize and Honorable Mention Winners! Technorati Tags: ADR, law, arbitration