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• Paula M. Young

Paula M. Young

Associate Professor of Law

 pyoung@asl.edu
276-935-4349, Ext. 1221  

 

Courses Taught: Dispute Resolution, Certified Civil Mediation, Insurance Law Practicum

Prof. Young, winner of the 2010 Distinguished Mediator Award presented by the Virginia Mediation Network, was a partner in the St. Louis law firm of McCarthy Leonard Kaemmerer Owen Lamkin & McGovern, L.L.C. and the sole proprietor of Pathways Mediation and Arbitration Center before joining academia. She has nearly 20 years of experience as a commercial dispute litigator, mediator, and arbitrator specializing in insurance, reinsurance, and other contract disputes. Before joining McCarthy Leonard, Prof. Young was an associate in one of the largest law firms in the world, Skadden Arps, in its Washington D.C. office, engaged in an oil and gas and public utility law practice. She also worked for the largest law firm in Oklahoma after graduating from law school.

Prof. Young has over 1,600 hours of training in the theory, practice, and techniques of group facilitation, negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. In October 2005, the Executive Secretary of the Virginia Supreme Court appointed her to the Mediator Review Committee, the highest venue for hearing formal complaints filed against certified mediators. She held that position for two terms, and was then reappointed in 2011. She also helped revise Virginia's mediator qualification rules, mediator ethics code, and mediator grievance procedures as a member of the Ethics Committee. She was also appointed to the American Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Section's Standing Committee on Ethical Guidance and was co-chair of the ABA ADR Section's Ethics Advisory Opinions Database Subcommittee. These appointments make her a member of the top mediator ethics boards nationally and in Virginia. She is a member of the Virginia Mediation Network (VMN), and the Virginia Restorative Justice Association. She joined VMN's board in October 2010. In January 2006, the Governor of Kentucky commissioned her as a Kentucky Colonel for her efforts on behalf of the mediation community in that state.

She is the author of a number of articles on mediation and arbitration that have appeared in national, state, and local legal journals, available here. Several of her articles have been reprinted at mediate.com.

Publications  

• "A Connecticut Mediator in a Kangaroo Court?: Successfully Communicating the 'Authorized Practice of Mediation' Paradigm to 'Unauthorized Practice of Law' Disciplinary Bodies," S. Tex. L. Rev. ___ (Summer 2008).
• "Take it or Leave it. Lump it or Grieve it: Designing Mediator Complaint Systems that Protect Mediators, Unhappy Parties, Attorneys, Courts, the Process, and the Field," 21 Ohio St. J. Dispute Resolution 721 (2006), reprinted in E. Wendy Trachte-Huber, Peter Robinson & Stephen Huber, Mediation and Negotiation: Reaching Agreement in Law and Business (2007) and in Edward Brunet, Charles B. Craver & Ellen Deason, Alternative Dispute Resolution: The Advocate's Perspective Cases and Materials (4th ed. forthcoming).
• "Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice, Give Thanks, and Sing: ABA, ACR and AAA Adopt Revised Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators," 5 Appalachian J. of L. 195 (2006), reprinted in E. Wendy Trachte-Huber, Peter Robinson & Stephen Huber, Mediation and Negotiation: Reaching Agreement in Law and Business (2007) and in Edward Brunet, Charles, B. Craver & Ellen Deason, Alternative Dispute Resolution: The Advocate's Perspective Cases and Materials (4th ed. forthcoming).
• Supervision, Rehabilitation and Liquidation of Troubled Insurance Companies, Missouri Insurance Practice, Ch. 2 (5th ed. 2004)
• Supervision, Rehabilitation and Liquidation of Troubled Insurance Companies, Missouri Insurance Practice, Ch. 2 (4th ed. 1995 & Supp. 1997)
• Multiple articles found on Mediate.com.