Please join the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Section as
we virtually celebrate Conflict Resolution Day on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026 from
4–6 p.m.
The webinar will introduce a panel on the use and scope of organizational
ombuds. Organizational ombuds are dispute resolution professionals who work with
individuals and groups to provide safe places to discuss issues of
concern, to explore options to resolve those concerns and to provide systemic
information to the organization for resolution.
The ombuds panel will be preceded by a short presentation on Conflict
Resolution Day by the Dispute Resolution Section Council and the reading of a
proclamation issued by Gov. Maura Healey. Conflict Resolution Day 2026
will also pay tribute to Diane Neumann, an accomplished mediator and divorce
mediation trainer who passed away in March 2026, presented by John Fiske and
Ellen Waldorf.
Afterward, Hon. Judith Dein will receive the 2026 Professor Frank E.A. Sander
Award in Dispute Resolution, honoring the memory and legacy of Frank Sander of
Harvard Law School, a luminary and founder in the field of conflict resolution.
Judge Dein has been a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court of
Massachusetts since July 2000. Judge Dein had more than 20 years of civil
litigation experience before being appointed to the bench. She was the chief
magistrate judge from February 2009 to February 2012. As a magistrate
judge, Judge Dein presided over pretrial matters in all types of civil cases
filed in federal court, and with the consent of the parties, presided over jury
and jury-waived civil cases through judgment. Judge Dein still presides over
pre-trial matters in criminal felony cases.
Magistrate judges are the principal mediators in the U.S. District Court’s
civil pretrial mediation program, which is available to all civil litigants free
of charge. Judge Dein has mediated thousands of cases in the federal court since
2004, including employment, intellectual property, environmental, civil rights,
insurance, prisoner, contract, ERISA, Social Security and personal injury
matters.
Judge Dein was instrumental in creating the District of Massachusetts Mediation
Advocates Panel (MAP) with the Federal Bar Association (FBA). This panel
provides pro bono representation to pro se civil litigants in the pretrial
mediation program. She created the panel from lawyers in the Massachusetts
chapter of the FBA with the court’s support and input. The MAP program assigns
volunteer attorneys to represent pro-se litigants during the mediation of their
case. In 2011, Judge Dein received the “Community Peacemaker Award” from the
Community Dispute Settlement Center in recognition of her contribution to
MAP.
Judge Dein is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation and a valued
member of the MBA Dispute Resolution Section. Judge Dein retired in July 2024
and is now serving on recall status, with a reduced case load and mediating
civil cases in the U.S. District Court’s pretrial mediation program. Judge Dein
is a graduate of Union College and Boston College Law School, and she clerked
for both the Superior Court and the Supreme Judicial Court.
This program is free to all!
This webinar will be held via Zoom. Registration is required by 5
p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14, to participate in this program. An email
from MassBar Education will be sent before the program.