When I started practicing law in 1981, I focused on labor and employment law. My practice involved management and union matters such as unfair labor practice charges and breaches of collective bargaining agreements. As a labor lawyer during that time, I regularly participated in mediation and arbitration as the primary mechanisms to resolve labor disputes. Other areas of law rarely used mediation or arbitration to resolve disputes as litigation through the court system was the primary vehicle for determining the rights of parties.

As time went on, I handled more employment law cases, including discrimination cases and wage-and-hour class actions as well as all other employment-related legal matters. The use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)—namely, mediation and arbitration—began to catch on as a significant tool for resolving litigation disputes in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I became a certified mediator in Tennessee in 2003 and began mediating cases while maintaining my law practice.