Collaborative Divorce Texas is excited to welcome Forrest (Woody) Mosten as our keynote speaker to the 12th Annual State Bar of Texas Course in Collaborative Law: "Avoid Breaking Bad When Breaking Up" in Dallas on March 7-8, 2019. Woody will be presenting "Guiding Your Client Through Difficult Situations" as the keynote of a conference focused on handling difficulties in Collaborative practice: difficult issues, difficult personalities, difficult tax questions, and difficult in launching and growing your Collaborative business.
Woody Mosten has been a mediator in private practice since 1979 and is a Collaborative Family Lawyer. Woody is the author of several best selling books on Mediation, Collaborative Practice, and expanding Legal Access, and he travels internationally to train professionals to build profitable peacemaking practices.
Mr. Mosten's advocacy for peacemaking focuses on mediation, collaborative law, and unbundled legal services and includes writing, speaking, teaching, and leading groups of like-minded professionals, while also maintaining his own thriving practice.
Mr. Mosten is the co-editor, along with Adam Cordover, of "Building a Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice" (ABA, 2018) and the author of Collaborative Divorce Handbook (Jossey-Bass, 2010), The Complete Guide to Mediation (ABA, 1997), Unbundling Legal Services (ABA, 2000), and Mediation Career Guide (Jossey-Bass, 2001).
Mr. Mosten's mediation practice specializes in high conflict mediations involving divorcing families, partnerships, employment disputes, probate, real estate, commercial disputes and other complex civil lawsuits. He also teaches mediation as a member of the faculty of the UCLA School of Law and in the Dispute Resolution Program at Pepperdine School of Law. He has taught at USC Law Center, Hamline School of Law, Whittier School of Law, SMU, and University of San Diego School of Law, and was Director of Clinical Education and a law professor at the Mercer School of Law.
In addition to writing, speaking and teaching about collaborative law, Woody also represents clients in the Collaborative Process. He has previously spoken about his representation of Roy Disney, a friend and client, in Mr. Disney's Collaborative Divorce. Woody said, "The family wanted a confidential process, and collaborative law was perfect for them. Divorce does not require that family privacy be violated, and people can get what they need without undue antagonism through a collaborative law agreement."
Mr. Mosten has been named a Los Angeles Super Lawyer in both Family Law and Mediation and has received two prestigious awards from the American Bar Association: A Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovations in Legal Access by the ABA Section of Delivery of Legal Services; and the Lawyer as Problem Solver Award by the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution.
Mr. Mosten is actively engaged in a number of initiatives to increase the awareness and use of conflict resolution and prevention in our society. He was the Chair of the ACR Taskforce to establish a National Peacemaker Museum and is a key thinker and supporter of the movement to form a US Department of Conflict Resolution and Prevention. In 2006, the Southern California Mediation Association established the SCMA/Forrest S. Mosten Mediation Library Fund to set up citizen information centers on conflict resolution at institutions throughout Southern California. In 2007, the University of California at Riverside established the Forrest S. Mosten Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution Program to form an academic Minor Degree in this area of study, an annual Scholar in Residence and Lecture Program, and a student internship program. Mr. Mosten was the inagural Scholar in Residence; his lecture was "Peacemaking: From Kindergarten to the Middle East." In 2008, Mr. Mosten was the Commencement Speaker for the University of California, Riverside asking graduates to "Take a Peacemaker Pledge."
His innovations in mediation, collaborative law, and legal access have been reported in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Week, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the ABA Journal and many other publications throughout the world.
Mr. Mosten is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California, Riverside and received his Juris Doctorate at the UCLA School of Law. He is married to Dr. Jody Mosten, a Clinical Psychologist. He has a daugher, Jordana Mosten, and a stepson, Derek Grotzinger, who is married to Julie. Woody is a passionate golfer whose handicap ranges from 12 to 17, depending on his workload.
Leave a Reply