HARRISBURG (May 5, 2021) — The Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee will present its Sir Francis Bacon Alternative Dispute Resolution Award to Selina J. Shultz, founder and executive director of the Conflict Lab in Pittsburgh, virtually at an awards ceremony during the PBA Virtual Annual Meeting, May 19-21.
The Sir Francis Bacon Award recognizes an individual who has made a significant impact in bringing mediation and other forms of dispute resolution to Pennsylvania. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a Renaissance writer who served British monarchs in a legal capacity as knight, attorney general and solicitor. He authored the essay, “Of Negotiating,” which featured the frequently-quoted line, “It is generally better to deal by speech than by letter, and by the mediation of a third than by a man’s self.”
An experienced conflict and organizational consultant for more than 20 years, Shultz serves as a mediator, consultant and coach, trainer, facilitator and contract ombudsman. At the Conflict Lab, she developed a unique mediation, training and facilitation space that works with independent collaborators across the country to provide comprehensive conflict consulting and organizational development services with a basis in conflict competence and a healthy conflict culture. Services include divorce and civil mediation, meeting facilitation, in-house dispute resolution system design and contract ombuds services.
In addition, Shultz was the founder and principal mediator at Bunde, Gillotti, Mulroy, & Shultz PC Alternative Group, and a partner and senior consultant CoralBridge Partners LLC. For more than 13 years, she mediated custody cases for Allegheny County’s mandatory program. She also trained mediators on ethics, mediation skills and substantive law issues.
Shultz is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of law where she teaches conflict resolution and coaching, decision making under conflict, and mediation. In 2020, Pepperdine awarded her the Davis McGibbin Excellence in Teaching Award. Through Pepperdine’s Professional Skills Program, she has trained lawyers across the country in mediation, as well as traveled to Uganda to train judges in mediation. Shultz was also an adjunct professor at Duquesne University School of Law where she co-created with Bob Creo a judgment and decision making course for lawyers, as well as at the University of Nevada William S. Boyd School of Law Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution where she taught a course on mediation essentials.
Outside of the legal community, Shultz worked with the City of Pittsburgh and various other funding sources in 2020 to create and establish Just Mediation Pittsburgh, an organization providing free mediation services to qualified individuals whose housing is at risk because of a landlord-tenant dispute. She coordinated the Prisoner Civil Rights Mediation Program created by Judge Lisa Lenihan to handle civil rights claims filed by the prisoners in the Federal Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania and is still active with the program. For 13 years, Shultz also mediated custody cases and trained mediators on ethics, mediation skills and substantive law issues for Allegheny County’s mandatory family court program, Generations Mediation Program.
Shultz regularly serves on the following panels: U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania Mediation Panel, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ADR Panel, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Contract Mediation Panel and Home Depot In-House Pre-Suit Mediation Program.
Since 2014, Shultz has served in multiple leadership positions for the Mediation Council of Western Pennsylvania, including president, member of the board of directors and executive committee, and Conflict Resolution Day chair. She is also a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Allegheny County Bar Association and Pennsylvania Council of Mediators.
Shultz received an LL.M. from Pepperdine University School of Law Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a B.A. from the University of Nebraska.
For more information on the PBA Virtual Annual Meeting, visit https://www.pabar.org/pdf/2021/2021AnnualMeeting.pdf.
Founded in 1895, the Pennsylvania Bar Association strives to promote justice, professional excellence and respect for the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access of legal services; and serve the lawyer members of the state’s largest organized bar association.