Why Mediation Fails and How to Fix It: A Strategic, Political, and Practical Approach to Case Resolution

Reuben Guttman | Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC

Reuben Guttman is a founding member of Guttman& Buschner, PLLC where – in addition to mediating cases – his practice involves civil rights, whistleblowers, class actions and complex litigation. The International Business Times has referred to him as “one of the world’s most prominent whistleblower attorneys.” Citing “wins recouping billions of dollars for the federal and state governments,” STAT News referred to him as the “The Lawyer Pharma Loves to Hate.”

Guttman has represented workers, unions, and pension funds in complex litigation. For over a decade, he served as the chief outside counsel to the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union, AFL-CIO/CLC, in a series of labor and environmental cases that enhanced safety and environmental conditions at Manhattan Project nuclear weapons sites while driving dread disease compensation legislation for nuclear weapons workers across the nation. In 2020, he served as lead counsel in a federal class action lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Corrections and secured a consent order mandating Hepatitis C testing and treatment for 17,000 inmates. His defense work has included First Amendment work for a newspaper group and jury trial civil fraud defense.

Guttman is currently a faculty member of the American University School of Public Affairs where he teaches Equal Protection/Civil Rights, and he has been an Adjunct Professor at Emory Law School and a Senior Fellow at Emory Law’s Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. He is a Founder and Senior Advisor to the Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review (ECGAR). He is the 2015 recipient of the Emory Law Alumni Service Award. He has taught trial advocacy and complex case investigations in the United States, China, and Mexico, and he has co-authored three case files – two published by Emory Law and one published by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy where he is a faculty member.

He is co-author (with J.C. Lore III of Rutgers Law) of the textbook, Pretrial Advocacy (Wolters Kluwer Spring, 2021). He is a chapter co-author (with Traci Buschner) and wrote the introduction for Remote Advocacy: A Guide to Survive and Thrive (Wolters Kluwer and National Institute of Trial Advocacy, 2020). He is co-author of False Claims Act: Representing the Plaintiffs (LEXIS/NEXIS Practice Guide, 2025). Guttman has written or co-authored more than 100 articles or opinion pieces and multiple book chapters and law review pieces. He has been a columnist for Law360 where he writes on litigation and politics, and he has been a columnist for the Global Legal Post.

His article, Pharmaceutical Regulation in the United States; a Confluence of Influences, was translated and published in Mandarin in the Peking University Public Interest Law Journal, Vol 1, Page 187 (2010). Guttman is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation; he is past member of the Board of Directors of the American Constitution Society (ACS) where he is currently a member of the ACS Board of Advisors. Guttman received his JD from Emory University and his BA in American History from the University of Rochester. He is the founder of www.whistleblowerlaws.com.

He began his legal career as a Washington DC counsel for the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, where he served for five years. Guttman is licensed to practice in front of The United States Supreme Court and in the states of Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia.

John Harrison | Evans Harrison Hackett PLLC

John Harrison has been in the private practice of law in Chattanooga, Tennessee for over 45 years. His practice consists of representing clients in litigation involving discrimination claims, retaliation claims, wrongful discharge claims, employment contracts, and employment torts; advising clients on employment and labor law compliance; representing clients in general business and commercial litigation; and representing management in union matters, including union avoidance, unfair labor practice charges, labor organizing efforts, union representation elections, collective bargaining, strikes, and labor arbitrations.

John has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in Labor and Employment Law since 2007. John is listed in Mid-South Super Lawyers® in Employment & Labor, Employment Litigation: Defense, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. John is a Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31-Listed General Civil Mediator. John is a Master in the Ray L. Brock and Robert E. Cooper American Inn of Court.

I. Where does the client need to end up? | 1:00pm – 1:12pm

II. Which cases are best suited for mediation? | 1:12pm – 1:24pm

III. What are the politics governing settlement? | 1:24pm – 1:36pm

IV. When is it time to mediate? | 1:36pm – 1:48pm

V. How do you select a mediator? | 1:48pm – 2:00pm

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

VI. The formats for mediation? | 2:10pm – 2:22pm

VII. Cutting the issues? | 2:22pm – 2:34pm

VIII. The role of counsel and clients? | 2:34pm – 2:46pm

IX. Mediation as a fact-finding mechanism? | 2:46pm – 2:58pm

X. Mediation as a settlement process? | 2:58pm – 3:10pm