Effective Advocacy in Employment Mediation

Vanessa D. Gilmore (USDJ Ret.) joined JAMS in Houston in 2022 after a distinguished 27-year career as a United States district judge in the Southern District of Texas. Sworn in as the youngest sitting federal judge in the nation, Judge Gilmore went on to develop extensive experience in handling matters involving patents and copyrights, labor and employment, and securities class actions. She has issued important decisions on intellectual property, products liability, securities fraud, energy and utilities, insurance and environmental law, and has handled significant matters, including the trial of the Enron Broadband case and the building of the Galveston cruise ship terminal.

Mary Anne Mason (Ret.) has had a career spanning more than 40 years, including 19 years on the bench in Cook County (Illinois). From July 2013 to her retirement, the Illinois Supreme Court assigned Justice Mason to serve on the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, where she twice served as presiding Justice. She also served on the First District Settlement Committee and mediated cases on appeal. Justice Mason’s 13-year tenure on the circuit court included nine years in the Chancery Division, where she handled hundreds of matters in the substantive areas of class actions, commercial and business dissolution disputes, complex insurance declaratory matters, restrictive covenants and other employment-related matters.

Linda R. Singer, Esq., a nationally-known neutral, has over 30 years of dispute resolution experience. She served as a special master to the U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y., and has been appointed as a mediator by numerous federal and state courts. Ms. Singer pioneered the development of mediation as a practice, training fellow mediators and lawyers throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. She has designed ADR processes for private companies, court systems, and government agencies. She has extensive experience handling a vast array of complex employment cases such as sexual harassment claims, complex ERISA actions, Title VII, and more.