Choosing a practice area is an important aspect of your career as a mediator or conflict resolution professional; especially if you are planning on resolving disputes in court from time to time.
Specialization in a specific mediation practice area is a good way to maximize career success as it typically aligns directly with your skills and passions. When you take time to choose from a range of practice areas, it allows you to tailor your services to fit the clients as they need you and improve your success as a mediator.
Choosing a specialty also helps you decide the kind of hearings and clients you want to accept — which is very beneficial when you’re just starting out. This article will help steer your interests and any misunderstandings you may have when it comes to choosing a mediation speciality or practice area.
You should specialize as a mediator so you develop expertise in the practice area(s) you care about or comprehend well. It is hard, if not impractical or impossible, to know everything about every practice area available. Choosing and developing a mediation speciality that’s important to you, allows you to focus your time and attention on specific cases where you have subject knowledge.
This could also help you understand the legal dispute between the parties but also the industry they operate in. For example, if you previously owned or worked at a construction company for several years, focusing your practice on construction-related disputes would empower you to combine your legal knowledge of construction disputes from professional experience and your practical understanding of construction industry standards to better serve your clients.
Referrals from other mediators and lawyers are a lucrative source of business. In developing your specialty, you could also become the trusted, go-to person in the local area for those types of disputes. Specializing in unique fields and different practice areas will enable you to submit yourself to the best employment opportunities available considering your skill set and credentials. You want to be the mediator they call whenever these kinds of disputes arise.
Practically any legal practice area could become a mediation specialty except criminal cases. More on that in this blog post. Mediators can specialize in resolving disputes across divorce and child support or auto accident and sports injury. There are plenty of mediation specialities and it’s recommended you choose areas you are passionate about so you’re truly fulfilled by case outcomes. For example, if you specialize in child services where you're passionate about helping children who go through challenging situations, you can also be passionate about family mediation. Here are just a handful of popular mediation specialities you can choose from or combine in your practice:
When it comes to choosing a speciality, you want to make sure you are passionate about the subject. And when it comes to choosing methods for alternative dispute resolution to conclude a case, the Fourth Party app is the safe and secure tool ADR professionals use to help parties resolve conflict faster.
If you’re a busy negotiator or ADR professional looking to maximize your time, money, and client relationships, Fourth Party is the answer. Our intuitive app is the solution for on-the-move arbitration, mediation, and conflict resolution professionals to manage tasks, streamline negotiations, and track results – all in one place.
Click here to book a demo with us at Fourth Party. We look forward to getting to know you and doing our part to improve the dispute resolution process.
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