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Neutral Draws On Meditation
For Mediation
BURBANK
- Eleanor Oths Barr started mediating when she was
35 and found herself in competition with retired
judges who had spent a lifetime in the law.
One of the assets that keeps her
in the running for clients is her skill in breathing
techniques and meditation. And for that, she traveled
halfway across the world.
Barr, 42, began her career as
a litigator at Glassman & Browning defending
publishers in libel litigation. After two years,
she found she was litigating in a way that did not
suit her. "I am a very intense
person and needed something to balance me out,"
she said, "so I went to India to study yoga
for six weeks.
"She loved India and ended
up spending six months, leaving only because of
a case of dysentery. She came back to the United
States with an ability to breathe her way through
anything - including multiparty, decades-long, multilayered
disputes.
"What I learned about creating
calmness in yoga helps me stay calm during conflict,"
she said.
That skill has served her well.
Attorney Michael D. McLachlan
described the scene in a recent groundwater contamination
dispute minutes before it was to go to trial.
"The federal judge was literally
sitting on the bench. It was an intractable, 10-year-old
case, an extremely unpleasant breakup between a
tenant and a landlord, |
| "I just knew
this is what I wanted to do, and I love it,"
she said. "Conflict is not something
to be feared; it is an opportunity. "You
have to like conflict to be calm within conflict." |
with a big emotional component.
"[Barr]
was calm in the midst of it all."
The case settled just
before going to trial.
The
opposing counsel in the dispute, Jan A. Greben,
concurred about the hard feelings.
"[Barr]
didn't get involved with the emotions, but
she could handle them well," Greben said.
The attorney also appreciated
Barr's persistence.
"She
was even on vacation and was making calls,"
after the initial mediation, Greben said.
Barr was first exposed
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mediation while practicing environmental
litigation as a partner at Denny & Oths
(pronounced oats), a firm she described as
"a quality-of-life boutique, where we
worked hard but there were no billable hours
requirements."
She
specialized in environmental law; ground water
and soil contamination cleanup.
After
eight years with the firm, she spent a year
training and transitioning from litigation
to mediation.
"I
just knew this is what I wanted to do, and
I love it," she said. "Conflict
is not something |
to be feared; it is an opportunity.
"You have to like
conflict to be calm within conflict."
That fearless confidence
is almost contagious, according to two different
disputants, who used almost exactly the same
words to describe Barr's effect.
"She's
direct but not confrontational, exceptionally
diplomatic, a quick study who picks up on
the nuances [and] so inspires confidence in
those who work with her," said Encino
attorney Floyd J. Siegal, who has worked with
Barr on a number of disputes, most recently
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Young Burbank Mediator Enjoys
Multilayered Disputes
on
a property-damage case.
Frank Gooch, a Santa Monica
real estate attorney, said Barr's most important
characteristic is her ability to instill confidence
in people.
"It's hard to describe what
makes her so effective," Gooch said. "It's almost
an instant trust."
| B |
arr's
career moves may have
seemed risky: taking off to |
India, starting a small
firm with one other partner and then leaving it
to run a solo practice focused exclusively on mediation.
"I am not risk averse,"
she said, "but I am not reckless.
"Barr has built her practice
suc-cessfully, she said, by keeping in contact with
attorneys she has worked with over the years, and
by mediating through the Los Angeles County Superior
Court's Party Pay Panel and state Court of Appeal
panel.
Gooch worked with Barr through
a court-appointed panel.
"We didn't think it would
settle," Gooch said, "so we didn't want to spend
a lot of money on a retired judge."
He chose Barr from a list.
"So you can imagine my surprise
when we settled," he said. "She has really made
me re-evaluate my thinking that you get more credibility
with a retired judge than a private attorney.
"Barr said she enjoys the
challenge of multilayered disputes that employ not
only her legal and evaluative skills but factual
analysis and emotional intelligence. She
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This
fall she will be teaching a mediation class
at Pepperdine University School of Law.
"Teaching is
fun," Barr said, "because you can
feel there is a new level of scholarship in
mediation and negotiation that is emerging."
Barr points to a growing
interest by Harvard University in the field
of mediation. This spring, she was a moderator
at a Harvard conference sponsored by the International
Academy of Mediators, of which she is a member.
But even in the midst
of the heady intellectual atmosphere, she
didn't lose her balance. She was on the conference
lineup, just before a full day of lectures,
leading lawyers in a yoga class. |
also enjoys disputes where the parties can
hardly stand to be in the room with each other.
"I start with
a state of mind
where I don't judge anyone, and then I figure
out what the parties
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need," Barr said.
Her
style will vary, she said, working at emotional
or legal levels or even determining what the
parties' underlying values are.
Michele
M. Goldsmith, who worked with Barr on an employment
dispute, said there are always emotional aspects
to employment cases. Barr was able to deal
with the emotions and was "a very intelligent
and professional mediator with a keen understanding
of the legal issues," Goldsmith said.
Barr said she does
not keep statistics on her settlement rate,
but estimates it is upwards of 90 percent
Her passion for mediation
stretches into scholarship as well. |
Here are some of the lawyers who have
used Barr's services: Rand D. Carstens,
Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith, Los
Angeles; Karl A. Gerber, Danz & Gerber,
Sherman Oaks; Robert L. Risley, Pasadena;
Michele M. Goldsmith, Bergman & Dacey,
Los Angeles; Michael D. McLachlan, Los Angeles;
Jan A. Greben, Greben & Associates, Santa
Barbara; Frank Gooch III, Gilchrist &
Rutter, Santa Monica; Richard P. Ormond, Buchalter,
Nemer, Fields & Younger, Los Angeles;
Floyd J. Siegal, Spile, Siegal, Leff &
Goor, Encino; Bennett A. Rheingold, Torrance.
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