Julia Gold, senior lecturer and director of the University of Washington’s Mediation Clinic, came to the University of Washington in 1995. The Mediation Clinic, founded by Professor Alan Kirtley, was three years old at the time. Under her direction, and with the help of enthusiastic faculty and students, the clinic has grown to provide services to many kinds of parties.
Those served by the clinic have included employers and employees disputing discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, consumers and businesses, neighbors, and those involved in small contract cases and other employment and contract cases referred to the clinic by judges and lawyers. The outreach continues. “We are always interested in more cases,” Gold says.
As the clinic has grown in breadth, it also has become better established in the community. This year, the clinic has seen a settlement rate of more than 80%. And while Gold cautions that the historic settlement rate is no testament to success or failure, she agrees that it indicates something about the student participants’ skills as mediators. Every case, she says, teaches students something about conflict, communication and the importance of what is best for the client.
Starting Out
Gold began her legal career as a commercial lawyer before she started providing mediation services to families in conflict. She moved into the field of education after teaching Street Law at Seattle University. Over the years, she has taught mediation skills from U.W. and the University of Oregon to Nepal. However, Gold says, she never wanted to be a lawyer.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina with a degree in Latin, Gold “dropped out,” as she says, to a life in the country. She was married and worked as a potter. When her husband went to graduate school in Ithaca, New York, she moved there with him.
In Ithaca, she realized that her employable skills were limited. She found herself waitressing and worked as a librarian. She began thinking more seriously of a legal career. When the couple returned to the Carolinas, she worked in an art museum and as a social worker. She had thought of law school in college but “it was the ’60s,” she explains, “and I went in another direction.” In 1980, she matriculated at the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Gold loved law school, but she was not as comfortable in private law practice where she worked for five years, doing commercial litigation, bankruptcy and personal injury work. Mediation, she says, suits her personality. “My father was the city manager and was known as a ‘natural conflict resolver’ — the type who always talked with people and worked things out before they became bigger conflicts — so I guess I got my interest in mediation from him, although we certainly never called it ‘mediation,’” Gold says.
And then, after graduation from law school, Gold and her husband used a mediator in the dissolution of their marriage and she saw, for the first time, another way she could put her degree to use.
On Mediation
Mediation, Gold says, felt right from the beginning. “As mediators, we really learn how to listen … and not just listen for substantive content, but also for what’s under the words, what the person really wants and needs, and how they are feeling about the situation.”
Gold believes that mediation is becoming increasingly important. “It is,” she explains, “emerging as the primary ‘alternative’ to litigation within our legal system.” Litigants prefer mediation, she says, because they can control the outcome of their disputes, saving them time and money, and often find it more emotionally satisfying. Both sides feel as if they’ve been “heard” and have affected the outcome. “This can mean a lot,” Gold explains, because it “gives a sense of satisfaction [greater] than handing your case over to your lawyer and letting them fight the battle for you.”
Gold is especially enthusiastic about the mediation community in Seattle. She finds the professionals here to be vibrant and passionate about the field. She also counts herself as lucky to collaborate with groups such as the Dispute Resolution Center of King County, which allows the U.W. Mediation Clinic to participate in its small claims mediation program.
The Mediation Clinic
The clinic provides mediation services for almost any type of case (although not for family matters). It gives students the experience of acting as neutral third-party advisors — not advocating for clients, but helping them reach resolution on their own. The clinic is the “practicum” for students who have taken extensive mediation skills training and have done additional practice mediating, where they get a chance to put their skills into action. It operates between October 1 and June 10, referring cases during the summer to the Dispute Resolution Center.
Gold believes that students learn to be better lawyers through the program, especially in their roles as counselors and negotiators. She cites the mediator’s credo: “When mediators listen, people talk!” Listening to a client’s needs and understanding the dispute is a critical skill for practicing lawyers, Gold says. She believes that the experience is important, too, in providing laypersons and experienced lawyers with the opportunity to understand mediation.
Full Circle
Gold’s six years teaching Street Law at Seattle U. was a wonderful experience, she says, that whetted her love for teaching in an active, participatory environment. At U.W., Gold says she has the best possible job for a mediator.
In many ways, Gold has found mediation to be an answer to many of her ambitions. She loves the city of Seattle, her colleagues, the students she encounters and the continuing possibilities she sees in the field. Her students value her enthusiasm and her work.
One student says, “Prof. Gold has made dispute resolution through mediation her life’s work, and she brings her passion for what she does into the classroom. Her expertise, patience and guidance made the Mediation Clinic into a supportive learning environment for students and an effective service for clients.”
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