As President and Managing Partner of her own law firm since 1995, Lynn Cole brings to the dispute resolution process over 27 years as a successful trial attorney. Rated for most of her private practice years by her colleagues as “av” by Martindale Hubbell, she successfully tried over a hundred cases, in both federal and state courts, wrote and argued appellate matters, and served a vast number of clients, including fortune 500 clients, in complex commercial, contract labor and employment, banking, and construction cases, among others. Her success and experience in litigation is a testament to her knowledge and use of state and federal Rules of Evidence and Rules of Civil Procedure. She has both a successful domestic and international ADR practice.

Since 2003, she has served as a full-time dispute resolution professional handling hundreds mediations and arbitrations, with additional experience as a Special Magistrate and Special Master. Her domestic experience in mediation started in the early 1990s when she served as an initiating member -for over 10 years – on the Florida Mediation Qualification Board, appointed by the Florida Supreme Court. She has a strong and detailed working-knowledge of mediation in Florida and is certified as a circuit-civil mediator by the qualifying Florida Board, now called the Dispute Resolution Center. As Chair of the Civil Justice Reform Commission for the Middle District of Florida in the early 1990s, she chaired that federal Commission that had as one of its missions, the investigation and recommendation of changes in case management and alternative dispute resolution programs to assist the then heavily- burdened federal courts. As Chair of that Commission, the federal court accepted the Commission’s recommendation to use mediation in its case management system. Trained both in Florida and at Harvard Law School in its Mediation Program, she has been recognized as a Diplomate member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals for services to the ADR sector.

Her extensive domestic practice in private mediation and arbitration also includes appointments as a Special Magistrate in State court complex cases, a Special Master in tax and real estate matters, an SEC Receiver, and as settlement counsel in private cases. She has been invited to serve as a neutral for the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (“CPR”), National Arbitration Forum, Arbitrators and Mediators (“NAM”) Roster, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and FINRA, among others. The U. S. Council for International Business (“USCIB”) lists her as an Arbitrator and she is a neutral for the International Chamber of Commerce.

Combining her substantial knowledge of U. S. and Florida federal and state judicial systems and mediation, she has been offered work internationally as a USAID Mediation Consultant to assist in the design and function of court-related mediation programs in emerging democracies to increase societies’ access to justice and to strengthen judiciaries by eliminating case backlogs. She has designed court-related mediation programs in Bulgaria; Jordan (the first court-related mediation program in the Arab Middle East); Kosovo; and currently assists a Jordanian team to assist Saudi Arabia in its design of court-related mediation.

Ms. Cole is an educator and teacher of mediation. For several years, she served an Adjunct Professor of Mediation at Stetson University College of Law. She currently serves as President of the Cole Academy for International Mediation Training, and has taught internationally in Commercial Mediation; Ethics; and, Basic and Advanced Mediation. She has lectured and taught mediation courses domestically for students in several universities and law schools and internationally for judges and mediators from Turkey, Greece, Cypress, Jordan, Oman, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, and Croatia. Her next pending assignment will be in Palestine.

For additional details, please see Ms. Cole’s current Curriculum Vitae (PDF).

Lynn’s Mission Statement

Lynn Cole is dedicated to integrity, ethics, and the highest degree of professionalism in her work as a mediator, arbitrator, and Special Master/Magistrate.  Her belief in alternative dispute processes as a way of both serving client interests and minimizing costs and delays is unwavering. She works diligently to maximize this mission in her daily ADR practice.