Prof. Paula Marie Young, winner of the first Distinguished Mediator Award presented by the Virginia Mediation Network (VMN), teaches as a Clinical Professor of Law at the Qatar University College of Law in Doha, Qatar.  She teaches Legal Research & Writing I and various Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) courses.  For thirteen years, she taught at the Appalachian School of Law as a tenured full Professor of Law.

Before she joined academia, Prof. Young was a partner in the St. Louis law firm of McCarthy Leonard Kaemmerer Owen Lamkin & McGovern, L.L.C. and founder of Path Finder Mediation.  She has 30 years of experience as a commercial dispute litigator, mediator, and arbitrator specializing in energy, environmental, insurance, reinsurance, and other civil disputes.

Before joining McCarthy Leonard, Prof. Young was an associate in one of the largest law firms in the world — Skadden Arps – in its Washington, D.C. office engaged in an oil, natural gas, and public utility lawpractice.  Immediately after graduating from law school, she worked in the energy department of Hall Estill — the largest law firm in Oklahoma.

Her firm – McCarthy Leonard — served as General Counsel to the then-largest insurance insolvency in U.S. history.  She handled complex insurance coverage cases involving environmental losses, asbestos exposure, lead-based paint ingestion, and injuries caused by other defective products.  She also collected over $57 million from reinsurers, including Lloyd’s of London, on behalf of the insolvent insurer.  She collected over $22 million of that recovery through mediations in which she participated as an attorney-advocate.

Martindale-Hubbell lists her as an AV-Rated Preeminent Woman Lawyer with highest peer ratings for legal ability and ethics.   She has a “superb” rating on Avvo (10 on a 10-point scale).  In January 2006, the Governor of Kentucky commissioned her as a Kentucky Colonel for her efforts on behalf of the mediation community in that state. In 2010, she won the Distinguished Mediator Award from the Virginia Mediation Network, the largest statewide organization of mediation practitioners, scholars, and trainers.  Prof. Young joined the Virginia Mediation Network’s Board of Directors in October 2010 and quickly rose to the position of President (2012-2013).

Prof. Young’s undergraduate and graduate degrees are from top-ranked Washington University (B.A.1978, J.D.1982), and she is licensed to practice law in D.C.

Prof. Young has over 3,500 hours of training in the theory, practice, and techniques of consensus building, group facilitation, negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.  She received a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Dispute Resolution at the University of  Missouri School of Law in August 2003.  U.S. News and World Reporthas ranked it as a top program for over a decade, with its ranking exceeding that of Harvard University in many years.

She has written over 50 law review publications, book chapters, and op-ed articles on mediation and arbitration.  Several of her articles have been reprinted at http:/www.mediate.com and by other publications.  Her scholarly articles appear in the top ADR journals in the U.S.

In October 2005, the Executive Secretary of the Virginia Supreme Court appointed her to the Mediator Review Committee, the highest venue for hearing formal complaints filed against certified mediators.  She held that position for two terms, and was then reappointed in 2011.  She also helped revise Virginia’s mediator qualification rules, mediator ethics code, and mediator grievance procedures as a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Ethics Committee.  She was also appointed to the ABA ADR Section’s Standing Committee on Mediator Ethical Guidance and Co-Chair of the ABA ADR Section Ethics Advisory Opinions Database Subcommittee.  These appointments made her a member of the top mediator ethics boards nationally and in Virginia.

She served as Secretary of the St. Louis Chapter of the Association of Attorney-Mediators.  She served on the ADR Committees of the ABA, Missouri Bar, and Virginia Bar. The President of the Missouri Bar appointed her vice-chair of the state bar’s ADR Committee for 2002-2003.  She was a member of the Virginia Restorative Justice Association. She also served as the national co-chair of the 2004 Representation in Mediation Competition sponsored by the ABA.

As a rostered mediator for the Virginia Department of Forestry, she conducted mediations involving water quality violations arising from local timber activities.  In addition, she has provided mediation services to Virginia’s state employees.

Prof. Young has been listed on the neutral roster for the Missouri Bar, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit Courts of Missouri, and the Reinsurance Association of America.  She has been a certified general district court mediator in Virginia and a Missouri Supreme Court Rule 11 qualified mediator.  She has taught a civil mediation training course recognized in Virginia and Tennessee as the entry-level training course for court-certified mediators.  She designed and delivered an online mediation training course.

SERVICES PROVIDED:  Prof. Young offers conflict resolution as a litigator, mediator, facilitator, arbitrator, trainer, program administrator, and dispute systems designer, helping people resolve disputes involving energy, environmental, contract, employment, business, and consumer transactions.