Building Cultural Flexibility to Negotiate and Mediate in Diverse Settings

Cultural flexibility is the ability to value and be effective in different cultural and social peer groups and environments. This program will help you recognize, respect and adapt to cultural differences in the mediation context. We will discuss how conflict is experienced, managed and resolved in different cultures and how to prepare for cross-cultural negotiations and mediations.

Participants will learn:

• How do cultures vary across different dimensions?
• How do those dimensions affect how conflict is experienced, expressed and resolved?
• How can a mediator prepare for sessions involving diverse parties?

About Lisa Pomerantz, Esq.

Lisa Renee Pomerantz graduated from Harvard University and Boston University Law School. After graduation, Lisa clerked for a federal judge. Following a stint as a litigation attorney, she worked for fifteen years as a senior-level in-house counsel for NEC.

Since 2003, Lisa has practiced business and employment law on Long Island. She mediates and arbitrates commercial, consumer and employment disputes for the American Arbitration Association and is on the mediation panel and the ADR Advisory Council for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Lisa has served in a variety of leadership roles with the Association for Conflict Resolution, the New York State Dispute Resolution Association and the Suffolk County Bar Association.

Lisa is a popular keynote speaker at legal and business meetings and conferences, and publishes an email newsletter entitled "Making the Connection." She has contributed numerous articles to the Suffolk Lawyer and ACResolution Magazine. She also has provided on-line and live training for business and legal audiences, and has taught at Touro Law School, New York Law School, the University of Tartu in Estonia and Vilnius University in Lithuania.

Lisa has received numerous awards for her professional activities. In 2007, Lisa received the Suffolk County Bar Association Directors' Award in recognition of her service as ADR Committee Co-Chair and also received Awards of Recognition in 2004 for her contributions to continuing legal education and as IP Committee Co-Chair. She was named Member of the Year by Moxxie Network for 2015. Lisa also received an award in 2015 from the Association for Conflict Resolution for exemplary leadership. In 2010, the Long Island Business News named Lisa as a recipient of its Top Fifty Around 50 Award, in 2011 and 2017 she received its Leadership in Law Award, and in 2019 she was named among the Top 50 Women on Long Island.