Spring 2024 Alumni Spotlight Jamie SaintPaul, J.D.

Jamie SaintPaul is former fellow of the Center on Dispute Resolution (CDR), who graduated from Quinnipiac School of Law with her Juris Doctor, with a concentration in civil advocacy and dispute resolution, in May 2020. Jamie is now a clinical fellow at the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program where she has served in her role since August 2023.  

 

Jamie’s initial exposure to dispute resolution grew out of mediating in her own household. Growing up as the oldest of five siblings, Jamie often found herself playing the mediator in many situations with her siblings. Jamie was introduced more formally to the world of dispute resolution during her time as an undergraduate student at Quinnipiac University where she took a course in mediation. As she transitioned to law school, Jamie began diving into alternative dispute resolution courses that Quinnipiac offered. Jamie then partnered with the CDR’s Co-Director Charlie Pillsbury and Professor Brendan Holt to bring back the Quinnipiac Homelessness Mitigation Mediation Project.  

 

In this role, Jamie helped to facilitate mediations to resolve housing disputes. Upon graduation from law school, Jamie worked with the Connecticut Judicial Branch as a housing mediator, then transitioned to Liberty Mutual Insurance. Finally, after building upon the alternative dispute resolution skills she acquired in law school, Jamie began a new role as a clinical fellow at the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program.  

 

For Jamie, there isn’t a “typical” day at the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. As a clinical fellow, Jamie meets and supervises various student organizations on campus with alternative dispute resolution-related projects. Jamie plays a large role in figuring out what, in regards to alternative dispute resolution, is going to be most beneficial for students at Harvard Law. Jamie supports the clinical program in any capacity and supports all new initiatives. Jamie also helps when the clinical program is conducting different dispute resolution training. Jamie’s favorite aspect of her role as a clinical fellow is learning from her co-workers as they have such varied experience in the field of ADR.  

 

Jamie’s past experience as a CDR Fellow set her up for the position she is in now. Her hands-on experience in the fruition of the Quinnipiac Homelessness Mitigation Mediation Project coupled with the up and down nature of the creation of such a project helped to set the stage for everything that has happened in Jamie’s career. Jamie credits Quinnipiac Law’s focus on the “whole lawyer” in creating actual lawyers rather than theoretical lawyering. She thanks Quinnipiac Law for ensuring that students are receiving meaningful experience in the alternative dispute resolution space while they are still in law school.  

 

Jamie was drawn to dispute resolution because she believes in the difference dispute resolution can make in the lives of clients who might otherwise not be afforded the opportunity. Jamie notes that alternative dispute resolution is instrumental in giving power back to individuals who haven’t been able to access the legal system. Mediation is part of the legal process that is open and available to everyone, regardless if an individual has an attorney or not. Jamie believes that ADR is a very practical area of the law where attorneys can acquire skills that not only apply to their professional careers, but rather seep into every other part of an individual’s personal life. If there is anything the field of alternative dispute resolution can do better, Jamie notes that there should be more space made for younger professionals to step foot into a career in the field.  

 

As to young lawyers who are looking into the field of dispute resolution, Jamie stresses the importance of networking. Opportunities are out there! Take advantage of all experiences that you can get to help build your resume and set you apart from other applicants. ADR instruction from your law school plus any practical practice will be vital in any career.  

 

We would like to thank Jamie for taking the time to talk with us and wish her the best of luck in her career! 

 

Alumni Spotlight - Jessica McDade

Jessica McDade graduated from the Quinnipiac University School of Law in 2020. While enrolled, McDade served on the Executive Board for the Society for Dispute Resolution, Women's Law Society, Family and Juvenile Law Society, Phi Delta Phi Honor Society, as well as a contributing member of Quinnipiac Health Law Journal and the Mock Trial Team.

          McDade has worked as a community mediator in Cambridge, as well as for the Worcester District Court in Massachusetts and the New Haven District Court in Connecticut.

          McDade's interest in dispute resolution began while she was in high school as a student peer mediator. This passion grew and played a major role in why she wanted to attend law school in the first place, but more specifically attend Quinnipiac Law and contribute to its Dispute Resolution Program.

      Upon receiving her J.D., McDade knew she wanted to work in a position that would allow her to utilize alternative dispute resolution methods such as mediation and arbitration within the legal field.

      McDade began her career working for a law firm that provided her with an opportunity to participate in property insurance arbitrations before she ultimately was able to turn her passion for ADR into a full-time position.

      McDade is currently a mediator for the State of Connecticut for all housing-related matters. In this position, McDade is able to utilize her dispute resolution skills on a day-to-day basis as she zealously helps parties with their housing disputes.

Our Fall Alumni Spotlight Features Alex Gillett, J.D. 2012!

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Our Fall Alumni Spotlight Features Alex Gillett, J.D. 2012!

Alex Gillett graduated from Quinnipiac University School of Law in 2012 with a concentration in Civil Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Gillette worked on the Obama Campaign in 2008. Ms. Gillett did not always know she wanted to attend law school and thought that she would eventually become a social worker. Later, however, she discovered that her skills in advocacy and policy better suited her for a career as a lawyer.

In 2009, Ms. Gillett officially enrolled at Quinnipiac University School of Law and focused her time on learning about alternate dispute resolution. She found that dispute resolution appealed to her from a problem-solving perspective because it got to the root of the problem rather than arguing precedent or case law. Ms. Gillett took every ADR course offered at the time, joined the Society of Dispute Resolution (SDR) and was ultimately elected President of SDR. She also served as the Center’s first Student Fellow during the 2011-2012 academic year.

As the Center Student Fellow, she helped plan the 2013 John A. Speziale ADR Symposium; participated in the Connecticut Mediation Network, the forerunner to the Connecticut Mediation Association; served as student liaison to the Sections on Dispute Resolution of the American and Connecticut Bar Associations; chaired the ABA Representation in Mediation Regional Competition hosted that year by the Law School; and engaged in strategic planning for future center events. She credits these experiences as opening the door for her first permanent position in the Judicial Branch as a Housing Mediation Specialist. 

Currently, Ms. Gillett works in Connecticut Superior Court Operations where she manages several programs, including several with an ADR focus. She began in the Judicial Branch as a TAC (temporary assistant clerk) before getting the Housing Mediation Specialist position. As a Housing Mediator, she was able to mediate thousands of landlord-tenant disputes relying on the skills she learned at QUSL in classes, the 40-hour mediation training class, and SDR competitions.

Presently, Ms. Gillett manages several programs and coordinates many of the Branch’s "Access to Justice" efforts. She focuses on long term planning, program design, and policy. While she no longer mediates cases, she uses her ADR skills daily when working with external stakeholders, judges, Judicial Branch staff, attorneys, and the public. She remains actively involved in the Connecticut Bar Association and supports the Connecticut Mediation Association. 

When asked if she had any advice for students interested in a career in ADR, Ms. Gillett explained that mediation can take many different forms and the skills practiced through mediation, negotiation, client counseling, and even arbitration are universally applicable in any field. She also said that learning how to communicate effectively and persuasively will help you anywhere. Learning how to listen in order to understand, rather than simply to reply, is an incredibly powerful tool and important skill in any field. Finally, learning how to find common ground despite disparate viewpoints or experiences is nearly universally applicable in any field and is absolutely vital in our current political climate. To Ms. Gillett ADR as a skill set is so much larger than courses and competitions; it’s a whole new world view. 

Ms. Gillett’s final piece of advice to law students was to get involved in activities both inside and outside the law school, because you never know which activity will open a door, introduce you to someone, or teach you something.

OUR SPRING ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT FEATURES BRIAN FESTA, J.D. 2010!

OUR SPRING ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT FEATURES BRIAN FESTA, J.D. 2010!

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Prior to going to law school, Brian Festa had not considered being an attorney.  Mr. Festa had a career in sales and marketing where he says that he was able to incorporate negotiation skills each day.  Mr. Festa was also a high school English teacher for 5 years prior to attending Quinnipiac University School of Law and graduating with his JD in 2010.  Mr. Festa decided to attend law school in 2006 at the age of 28.  Mr. Festa was an evening student during law school as he was also working full time for the State of Connecticut.

While he did not have a particular concentration during his time at Quinnipiac, he did focus on taking many of his classes in wills, trusts and estates.  Mr. Festa believed that when he graduated he would likely work in this area full time.  Mr. Festa worked as a Sappern Fellow with the Hartford Family Court during his final year at Quinnipiac.

Mr. Festa also received awards for having the highest grades in Advanced Legal Writing & Research and Federal Courts and was approached to be on the Quinnipiac Law Review, but was unable to participate because of his full-time career. In law school, Mr. Festa was unable to take the Alternate Dispute Resolution courses because he was balancing a full-time career. However, Mr. Festa always loved negotiation and was able to negotiate frequently in his career in sales and marketing.  In 2017, Mr. Festa took Professor Bill Logue’s 40-hour mediator training course at the QU Center for Dispute Resolution. 

Upon graduation from Quinnipiac University School of Law, Mr. Festa continued to work for the State of Connecticut and accepted a position at the Department of Labor as an unemployment appeals referee for the Unemployment Security Appeals Division, which was a quasi-judicial role.  In this position, Mr. Festa worked in mid-level appeals making decisions and writing opinions as to whether people would receive unemployment benefits or not.  This job allowed him to act as both the trier of fact as well as the decision-maker in each particular case.  Mr. Festa served in this role for around four and a half years.

Following this, Mr. Festa was hired as a Human Rights Attorney at the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities in Hartford, Connecticut.  Mr. Festa has served in this role since 2015.  As a Human Rights Attorney, Mr. Festa works in litigation both at the Office of Public Hearings and court to pursue the agency’s interest in eliminating discrimination.  Mr. Festa has also defended the agency in administrative appeals of the Commission’s decisions.  One of the best parts of this job is that Mr. Festa also is able to work in several different capacities, such as litigation, fact finding investigations, mediations, and settlement conferences.  In mediations, Mr. Festa works as an independent third party mediating issues between complainants and respondents.  Mr. Festa believes that as the mediator, you are working to show the benefits of settling while simultaneously ensuring that you do not put any pressure on them to settle.  Mr. Festa stated that he really loves the work that he is able to do each day and emphasized that he loves how each day brings a new role, whether it be mediation, investigation, or litigation, requiring a different set of skills.

Outside of his work, Mr. Festa has a passion for helping other people.  As a parent of a special needs child, Mr. Festa feels a personal connection to defending the rights of people with disabilities.  Mr. Festa also expressed that he has a passion for political activism and defending the rights of others.

When asked if he had any advice for law students thinking about a career in ADR, Mr. Festa’s most important advice was that lawyers should follow the old rule to listen twice as much as you talk.  He believes this strongly applies to mediation and ADR because you have to learn to read the parties and determine their best outcome.  ADR is becoming much more accepted (and often required) by the courts, and lawyers have become more open to engaging in ADR over the past couple decades.  Something Mr. Festa believes that all lawyers should be familiar with and willing to learn is how to listen and read the people in the room, because that is the key to a successful mediation.  Mr. Festa’s final advice was that no one will leave the room 100% happy, but the key is to just listen to each side entirely and hope that you can reach a solution that both parties can live with.

Fall 2019 Alumni Spotlight - Yvonne Shoff

Our Fall Alumni Spotlight features Yvonne Shoff, J.D. 1997!  

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Before going to law school, Yvonne worked for an asbestos settlement firm that kept asbestos related claims out of the court. This was her introduction to dispute resolution before she knew she even wanted to do it. She worked as a settlement negotiator for about two years in this position which taught her a lot about negotiation. 

While in law school, Yvonne was the President and Founder of the Family Law Society. As a law student at Quinnipiac, she had the opportunity to be involved with appellate litigation as a clinic student when she argued in front of the Connecticut Supreme Court.  

Since law school, Yvonne has been involved in dispute resolution in many ways. She was involved in housing mediations and clerked for a family law judge in the Superior Court of Bridgeport. Yvonne noted that in her time as a clerk, she never saw mediators in the courtroom, but now it is common! Currently, Yvonne works at the Connecticut Mediation Center where she is a full-time mediator and collaborative professional, working predominately on family related matters, often involving custody issues, parenting plans, and anything else family related. She is also a member of the Connecticut Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce and the Connecticut Bar Association. 

Yvonne has made alternative dispute resolution her work- and she loves it. She loves what she does a mediator and collaborative professional because it provides a holistic way to help divorce claimants and allows her to find and use creative solutions and create tailored agreements without having to turn to litigation. When asked about her collaborative work, she said it creates a way to get through a conflict productively because of the use of mental health professionals, divorce coaches, and other professionals who help to reduce the fears that come with divorce and the clients are able to get to the real reason they are arguing. While clients may often be skeptical and fearful of trying collaborative divorce, Yvonne notices how thankful clients are after the process that they chose collaborative. 

In her work, Yvonne has noticed how clients have an increasing willingness to recognize that there are two different stories to the divorce. She has also noticed how law schools are now embracing alternative dispute resolution, but they are not the only ones. She finds that while judges used to be hesitant to accept mediated agreements, now they recognize the value of mediation and often commend parties for using mediation to work through their divorce. 

When asked about the role that ADR has played in her job as a friend, she said to ask her friends. Yvonne’s commitment and passion as a mediator makes her see everything through the lens of a mediator. She sees her friends come to her with issues, looking for Yvonne to be a peacemaker for them. Yvonne loves this, though. She says that once you are hooked on seeing how dispute resolution affects people’s lives in positive ways, it becomes a lifestyle. Mediation has turned her into a more compassionate person and she no longer takes anything at face value but tries to remain neutral and looks to understand first instead of making snap judgments. Yvonne loves her profession so much that she wants to shout from the rooftops to let people know how positive the process can be! She even spreads the positive work of ADR at the University of New Haven when Dr. Henry Lee brings a delegation of students from China.  

Yvonne had a lot of advice for students who are thinking about a career in ADR, but her most important advice was to not get discouraged. She said the key is to persevere and learn as much as you can. She also suggests to students to take advantage of as many opportunities while you can as a law student, including going to conferences and volunteering. Yvonne made it clear that if this is your passion, don’t give up. She noted that it took her 20 years to find her dream job, but she never gave up. In addition to working with professors, Yvonne also recommends reaching out to professionals and to never be afraid to ask them for help. They will do everything in their power to encourage you, and she says they are the nicest people you will come across.  

For those considering making ADR their career, Yvonne also recommends taking more than just law classes- take marketing classes and learn how to market yourself in a profound and honest way because you may have to create the jobs that are not there. This is the way of the future, Yvonne says, and the opportunities are growing, you just need to have the grit. 

Alumni Spotlight - Kristen Sweet

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Kristen Sweet graduated from Quinnipiac University School of Law in 2013 with a concentration in civil advocacy and dispute resolution with honors. However, Ms. Sweet wasn’t always sure she wanted to go to law school. She graduated from college in 1992, and immediately went to work in the entertainment industry as a stage manager for live productions for 15 years. Her work brought her to Seattle, New York City and Connecticut. After her daughter was born, Ms. Sweet shifted focus in the entertainment industry and began working in payroll, sales and marketing in Los Angeles. In 2008, Kristen realized a lot of the work she was doing involved contract negotiations and began to wonder if she could cut out the middlemen and do these negotiations herself. So Ms. Sweet started to explore going to law school. She knew she never wanted to be an attorney who did day-to-day work in the court system; she thought agreements could be much better reached if the parties involved had an actual say in the matter. When she began looking at law schools, Ms. Sweet only looked, therefore, at schools with strong alternative dispute resolution programs. When she looked at Quinnipiac, she was extremely impressed with the school’s Center on Dispute Resolution. She talked to Dean Brown (back then, Professor Brown) about her work and goals with respect to the center, and what it meant to look at the whole lawyer and how we interact with one another in the practice of law. In 2010, Ms. Sweet officially enrolled at Quinnipiac University School of Law and began her transition from theater sales and marketing to the legal field.

While in law school, Ms. Sweet became the second student fellow to work for Quinnipiac’s Center on Dispute Resolution. She did an externship with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, working as a mediator doing employment discrimination. For classes, Ms. Sweet took as many ADR and employment law classes as she could. While she was working in the entertainment industry, she was a union member and decided that, while in law school, she wanted to use the knowledge and experience she already had in employment law and combine it with ADR work in that field. Ms. Sweet’s daughter was 10 years old when she started law school, and when asked about what that was like, Ms. Sweet noted that it definitely wasn’t easy raising a daughter while in law school, but she “just did it.” She reflected fondly on the study dates they would have together, and how grateful she was for her classmates and Quinnipiac faculty and staff being so supportive of her while she was doing it.

Following graduation, Ms. Sweet began working for an employment labor law firm in Hartford. The firm was management focused, and while Ms. Sweet was grateful for the time and experience she got there, she realized that she would much prefer working as either a neutral or an advocate on the employee end of the spectrum. Today, Ms. Sweet works for the United Public Service Union as a union attorney. She puts her ADR skills to work when she does contract negotiations or represents union members in mediations and occasional arbitration proceedings. She enjoys working hard for her clients in these negotiations and mediations. She’s found that a lot of what she learned in law school, she now gets to apply to her work, and she loves it.

Ms. Sweet thinks that parties are more open to negotiating and mediating than they were a decade ago. In employment law, and specifically labor relations, she noted that you always

need to consider that the parties have an ongoing relationship, and the employer and employees involved in these processes are very likely to have a long-term relationship. ADR processes allow her to keep those relationships in mind when she’s advocating for her clients. She’s also found that parties are more understanding of the value mediation offers in resolving these disputes; if the parties are willing to invest in the process and have open conversations, they’ll be more likely to find an outcome with which they both can live.

Outside of her work, Ms. Sweet finds she uses her ADR skills constantly in her everyday life. She noted that her daughter is a great negotiator, skills her daughter likely picked up from her. She thinks ADR really does improve our listening skills, as well as our ability to respond to one another, and increases our curiosity of what is in the mind of others in our lives. These skills, she noted, helps a lot in everyday life, and by using these skills in conversations and disputes with family and friends, you learn to bring a more humane approach to the formal processes. ADR, she said, offers skills that are beneficial in all aspects of life; she’s learned that sometimes treating each other fairly is more important than the outcome.

When asked if she had any advice for students thinking about a career in ADR, she had two simple words of advice: DO IT. Law school is one of the few times we have left in life to explore different things at the same time, so Ms. Sweet encouraged students to take advantage of what law school offers to try new things, hear speakers and do externships. She remembered that, when she wrote a paper for Professor Pillsbury’s Intro to Mediation course, she went out and interviewed mediators about their different styles, and how useful it was for her to talk to these individuals. She recommended that anything we can do to explore and better understand the ADR community, take full advantage of it. And if you find something that’s really cool, do not be afraid to talk to an ADR professor about setting up an independent study to learn more about it. “Let yourself be exhausted,” she recommended, “to take advantage of new opportunities.”

Alumni Spotlight Fall 2018!

FEATURING. . . ANDREW MARCHANT-SHAPIRO!

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After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota and a Master’s degree at the University of Chicago (both in sociology), teaching college for several years, and working in software engineering for 15 years, Andrew Marchant-Shapiro decided to pursue a law degree. Quinnipiac School of Law’s Dean’s Fellows scholarship program caught his attention, and during an interview with some faculty members, one professor inquired as to whether or not The Fellowship of Reconciliation--a pacifist organization that Andrew was affiliated with–was a dispute resolution organization.

That query served to connect his dedication to pacifism with the importance of the role that dispute resolution plays in achieving that goal. He found himself drawn to dispute resolution at Quinnipiac, starting with trying out for the Society for Dispute Resolution’s competition team and later in enrolling and participating in various dispute resolution courses.

In a regional Representation in Mediation competition, Andrew and his co-competitor, along with 2 other teams from QU Law, made up the top 3 teams at an ABA regional competition in Rhode Island. It was then that Andrew got a sense for what QUSL was capable of when it comes to the field of dispute resolution. His team ended up placing second overall.

He has since transitioned into practicing law and incorporating mediation into his work as much as he can. Andrew currently has a small practice, River Bridge Resolutions, LLC, where he represents clients primarily in the fields of inmate civil rights, family, and business law, trying particularly with the latter two to stress the role that mediation and relationship building have for maintaining cooperation, whether in families or in business. In such settings, he has experienced that using litigation can destroy a relationship crucial to a family or to an ongoing project.  While he is excited about assisting divorcing couples to work out parenting plans and helping businesses make good deals and maintain professional relationships, he recognizes that there is much more to do in the legal field to make potential clients aware of the benefits and availability of mediation in lieu of litigation. “We need to find a way to make mediation sexy,” he told me as he was thinking, that as far as awareness of the legal system and the legal community goes, most people only think of lawyers as litigators, and don’t realize that mediation is an option. As the treasurer of The Connecticut Mediation Association (CTMA), Andrew hopes to find ways to do just that and to promote mediation as a tool that can help parties solve problems in an efficient manner. Mediation is particularly apt when there are matters that require people to work toward the future, whether it is parents ensuring the well-being of their child or businesses working together on an ongoing project. Mediation is a great way to maintain relationships into the future instead of potentially destroying them in litigation.

At the end of the day, Andrew hopes that attorneys and clients alike will recognize the value in resolving disputes as opposed to squeezing the greatest financial value out of any given situation. Mediation is about advocating for a solution, as opposed to advocating for a client’s individual interests, and neutrality is key. When asked what advice he had for current law students, Andrew stressed the importance of obtaining soft lawyering skills during law school due to the number of cases that settle. He said, “Work on your negotiating skills as soon as you can because the vast majority of cases are not going to end up in court, and even the ones that do will likely end up settling at some point. Get involved in SDR. Volunteer as a community mediator.”