Kindergarten teacher, licensed counselor-social worker and lawyer/mediator. Bill Eddy has done them all. Eddy presents with the perfect background to mediate disputes involving people prone to high conflict. The potential for conflict is heightened in family law disputes. Eddy and his co-author, Michael Lomax, recently wrote Mediating High Conflict Disputes. They offer a new approach for mediation, geared toward the most difficult of litigants. Dwelling far less on back story, their "New Ways for Mediation" method focuses on four stages, giving the client tasks to complete at each phase (p. 41):