The International Academy of Mediators

Robert Benjamin
3246 SW Cascade Terrace
Portland, OR 97201

Phone: 503-417-2655
Email: rbenjamin@mediate.com

Robert Benjamin has been a practicing attorney since 1975. He was a general practitioner handling domestic, juvenile, personal injury, criminal, business, real estate and estate planning among other matters. Early on in his law career, he became aware that many of the issues he was seeking to resolve for clients legally reflected underlying conflicts that could be more effectively managed out of court by negotiation and mediation. After some years of trial practice, he refocused his professional direction toward mediation and now limits his work solely to negotiation, mediation and arbitration. He has been a practicing mediator since 1979.

Benjamin has both law (J.D.) and social work (M.S.W.) degrees from Saint Louis University. He received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in 1969.

He presents negotiation, mediation, and conflict management workshops, seminars and training courses nationally and internationally. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Washington University, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, and Adjunct Professor of Mediation in the Conflict Resolution Program at Indiana State University. He is a practitioner member and former president of the Academy of Family Mediators (AFM), a former member of the Board of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), and a member of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR), the American Bar Association Section for Dispute Resolution, and the Missouri Bar Association's Committee on Dispute Resolution. The effective management of conflict is perhaps the single most important task we face in our personal and business lives. In recent years, attention has focused on developing skills in and encouraging the use of negotiation and mediation. There has been a shift in our thinking such that more people are coming to realize that there are few clear right answers to the issues and conflicts we face and that differences must be negotiated if we are to survive. Those differences may involve the allocation of resources (time, money, property), values, rights and legal entitlements.

That shift in thinking, however, is not occurring swiftly nor is likely to do so in the near future. We are confronting centuries of thinking and socialization that has frequently discouraged negotiation in pursuit of the "truth." Many people still view negotiation as synonymous with "selling out," or the compromising of our principles.

To counter this negative view of negotiation, some professionals have sought to present mediation as a rational and humanistic process. They argue that if we can all reason together and seek to understand each other, conflicts can be resolved. While this approach is noble and has some validity, these approaches to negotiation are limited because most people in business or personal conflicts don't necessarily start off reasonable and unemotional.

Benjamin has developed an approach to negotiation and mediation that takes account of this hard reality. He believes that if mediation is to develop and flourish, first and foremost, it must be good business. People need not be calm and rational to effectively negotiate. They can negotiate even if they are angry and frustrated, if they feel they will be protected and that they will not be taken advantage of. The mediator's role, then, is to understand how to manage parties' fears and assure that their concerns are recognized. The mediator begins with the parties where they are in their thinking, not where he would like for them to be.

Not all people want to negotiate, or should. However, many (80%) can effectively settle their disputes with the aid of an experienced third party who helps them structure a process and has the skills to focus the discussion.

Mediation is not counseling. The primary purpose is to effectively negotiate the dispute that is presented, not change personal attitudes. At the same time, the sole purpose of mediation is not settlement. That is the responsibility of the parties. The mediator's purpose is to give the parties every opportunity to make informed, thoughtful decisions so that they can move ahead in their lives, be it personally or in their workplace.