This webinar qualifies for 1.0 hour of California MCLE

The courts in Southern California continue to experience ever-growing backlogs in their caseloads. Pressure to mediate early is now starting to come directly from the courts themselves. But if you mediate early, how likely is it that the parties can settle? (Remember: If you don't settle, your case is still active with the court.) Some kinds of cases require more extensive discovery (or at least informal information exchange) before the parties legitimately can understand the strengths and weaknesses of their case. This panel of experts (moderated by James K. Cameron, Esq., Co-Chair of the Attorney Outreach Committee) will examine in detail which cases can and cannot mediate "early", and what preparation checklists counsel should have to make sure that they and their clients are best positioned to attempt to settle the case at mediation

About the Panel

Myer J. Sankary graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1965 and has been a member of the California Bar for nearly 60 years. His practice areas were in business, real estate, litigation, probate and estates. He has mediated hundreds of litigated and non-litigated cases for over 25 years with a high resolution rate. He is often appointed as trustee in highly conflicted estates. In 2013, he started the non-profit organization, the Mediation Center of Los Angeles, which was awarded two contracts in 2018 with the Los Angeles Superior Court to provide low-cost medications with experienced attorney-mediators for all civil litigants who filed cases in Los Angeles County both in-person and online. For the past 10 years, Mr. Sankary provided his volunteer services for MCLA as President, Board Member, and Program Director. He has extensive experience with onlinemediations, which he started using in 2018.

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William M. Molfetta is an active member of the California State Bar. He Currently devotes his professional time to independent alternative dispute resolution. Mr. Molfetta served a three year term as a director on the Board of Directors of SCMA. He serves as a panel mediator with the Mediation Center of Los Angeles(MCLA). Mr. Molfetta mediates personal injury, insurance coverage, and business disputes. Over the course of his career, he has resolved well in excess of 1500 lawsuit disputes and personnel matters. Mr. Molfetta was managing counsel for more than 25 years of an in-house litigation law firm for Fortune 500 insurance companies (Aetna Casualty & Surety Company; Travelers Insurance). His firm, Molfetta & Raymond / Molfetta & Associates represented individuals and corporations in a wide variety of tort and contract matters. He has extensive experience in first party insurance claims, coverage, and subrogation matters. He Also has a special interest in Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist mediation.

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MyKhanh Shelton has more than 25 years of experience as a litigator at Quinn Emanuel, in-house employment lawyer at Fox film, television and sports studios and networks, and senior executive championing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion At Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. She brings a wealth of experience to her role as a mediator and arbitrator. She has successfully litigated, negotiated and mediated hundreds of disputes and handled high-profile and high-stakes matters in the film, television and sports industries. MyKhanh launched Shelton ADR to provide mediation, arbitration and consulting services across industries. MyKhanh received her BA from UCLA and her JD from UC Berkeley.

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James Cameron, the moderator for the March 19 Program, is the Co-Chair ofSCMA’s Attorney Outreach Program. Jim also has served as a member of SCMA’s Board of Directors (December 2016 - December 2019), and as the Leader of SCMA’s San Fernando Valley Professional Development Group. A member of the California Bar since 1977, Jim graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Law School. He now mediates full-time, and serves on two important Panels - the Mediation Panel operated by the Mediation Center of Los Angeles(MCLA), a non-profit which has a contract to provide discounted-fee mediations for the Court’s Civil and Probate Department cases; and the Central District’s Bankruptcy Court Mediation Panel. Jim received his initial training in mediation at the Centers for Dispute Resolution, under the leadership of Dr. Kenneth Cloke.Jim has maintained a Martindale-Hubbell AV Rating continuously since 1992.