John Spiegel

John Spiegel has worked exclusively as a mediator and mediation trainer since 1996. Prior to that, from 1985 to 1995, John was a practicing family law attorney. It was through his experiences in litigating family law cases that John became deeply committed to mediation because he saw that mediation provides a humane and effective alternative to litigation.

John received his legal education and J.D. degree from Yale Law School and his B.A. from Stanford University. He is a member of the Bars of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and California. In 2001, John received recognition as a Certified Mediator from the Maryland Council for Dispute Resolution (MCDR).

John has worked actively to promote the use of mediation for separation and divorce and other family matters. In 1996, in addition to establishing his private mediation practice, he founded the specialized family mediation program at Jewish Family Services in Baltimore and served as its mediator for a decade. In 2003 and 2004 John served as President of MCDR, a statewide professional organization of mediators and other alternative dispute resolution practitioners. From 2005 through 2008 he served as President of the Montgomery County Divorce Roundtable, an interdisciplinary organization composed of judges, attorneys, mediators, and psychotherapists. He has published articles on mediation and law reform issues and lobbied on behalf of MCDR and the Divorce Roundtable before the Maryland General Assembly.

John has also been active as a teacher. He served as Adjunct Professor of Law at American University, teaching juvenile law, and he has taught courses in mediation and in conflict resolution at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a frequent presenter for the Montgomery County Commission for Women and has provided conflict resolution trainings for governmental agencies, psychotherapists, teachers, PTAs, and religious organizations. He has been a presenter at major professional conferences nationally, including those of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), and the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

The father of four children, John views mediation as a continuation of his earlier legal work on behalf of children and families.

There is special pain when family members fight with each other. Even when someone “wins” a family dispute, there is often a larger sense of loss because the family relationships have been damaged. In our mediation office, we work from the perspective that there is always at least one elegant solution to every family conflict—whether it’s a disagreement about care arrangements for an elderly parent, a family business dispute, or a controversy between divorced parents about what school their children will attend. We seek to provide our clients with an environment in which they can do their best thinking and in which each person can be fully heard. We encourage our clients to think about the underlying needs and concerns connected with their dispute, to consider a wide range of possible settlement options, and to look creatively for solutions that are mutually beneficial.

Most of our mediation work involves marital separation and divorce. We know from our own experiences, and from working with hundreds of couples in mediation, that divorce can be one of life’s most difficult transitions. As mediators, our goal is to give separating and divorcing couples the highest level of professional expertise, along with real compassion and empathy. We aim to combine effective use of conflict resolution methods with a skilled lawyer’s understanding of relevant state divorce law. Our process is a structured one that makes room for expression of feelings, but keeps a focus on the decision-making tasks that need to be accomplished. We seek to guide clients through settlement negotiations in a manner that minimizes the financial and emotional harm of separation and divorce and preserves (or repairs) the ability of parents to function as a parenting team, over the long term. Divorce is always sad, but it can be handled with dignity and thoughtfulness.

Diversity is more than a catch-word for us. We know that every client brings to mediation a unique background of experiences and traditions. We encourage clients to talk in mediation about their own traditions and deepest values, and we believe that respect for our clients’ diversity is a strong foundation on which to build an effective mediation process.