JEDDAH — In conjunction with Walker Consultancy, Dar Al-Hekma College (DAH) recently organized a mediation workshop that was open to all. The workshop was attended by the college's legal studies students, faculty members, staff members and women working in law firms in the Kingdom. “The aim of the workshop was to train people in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), specifically in mediation, so that they could develop the necessary skills required to resolve cases without litigation,” said Sharia Walker, an instructor at the workshop. Walker is a Dar Al-Hekma alumnus and founder of Walker Consultancy. For the purpose of teaching this workshop, she had brought in her mentors from the US, Barbara Filner and Ellen Michaels. While Michaels has worked for 30 years as a public agency attorney in the US and has trained attorneys on mediation, Filner is a consultant in conflict resolution and has authored several books on the subject. The workshop was conducted in 12 hours spread over four days, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Key elements covered included conflict theory, stages of mediated problem solving and managing negotiations. According to the instructors, the workshop involved simulations of conflicts which the participants had to work out. So, while some acted as members of the parties in conflict, another would play the role of a mediator. This template was rotated in order for different participants to play the role of the mediator. Walker stated that they adapted the simulations to Saudi Arabia, so factors like gender segregation were taken into consideration. In one case, the dispute was between two branch managers who had a disagreement about the distribution of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund. Dana Halwani, a workshop participant working at Ahmed Zaki Law Firm, said: “The workshop was a very interesting experience, especially because I don't have that much of a background in mediation. I only felt that personally I could have gotten more out of it had I not been extra busy because of my job.” “I found the participants to be incredibly vibrant people who were always willing to try; they were not hesitant to take risks in front of their colleagues,” said Michaels. Filner said: “I was impressed by the fact that while we had a blend of faculty members and students, no one took advantage of their position during the simulations. Some faculty and staff members even told me that they had never worked this closely with students before, and were very happy to do so for this workshop.” Michaels and Filner noted that they faced no issues with the workshop proceedings, and were extremely satisfied with the results. Planning for the future, Walker said while this workshop was short and open to all, she would like to make mediation an integral part of the legal studies curriculum at Dar Al-Hekma. At the end of the workshop, the participants were given certificates of completion which were stamped by both the Walker Consultancy and Dar Al-Hekma College.
