During the past sixteen years, Bette Roth has mediated or  arbitrated more than 750 cases involving a wide range of commercial, securities, employment, construction, real estate, and discrimination disputes.  Ms. Roth is routinely engaged by both the plaintiffs’ and defendants’ bars, and has settled more than 93% of the cases she has mediated privately for parties. 

   Bette Roth is the primary editor and author of the national two-volume text, The Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Guide, a finalist for the 1994 CPR book award.  Since its initial publication in 1993, this book has been widely cited by litigants and judges both within and outside the U.S., and has become a staple in most U.S. law libraries.  Ms. Roth publishes the annual updates to this book, which has kept her on the forefront of legal trends and practices in the field of dispute resolution. 

       In 2007 as well as in 2006, Ms. Roth was named a New England and Massachusetts Super Lawyer in the field of ADR, by Boston Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine.

       Ms. Roth is the co-chair of the ADR Committee of the Boston Bar Association's Litigation and International Law Sections. 

       Ms. Roth provides the following ADR services: mediation, arbitration,  conciliation, case evaluation, teaching, training, facilitation, fact-finding, and consulting.

Background  

       From 2001 through 2008, Ms. Roth served as the Executive Director of the Middlesex Multi-Door Courthouse (“MMDC”) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The MMDC was a non-profit corporation that provided ADR services through a large panel of qualified neutrals.  The MMDC was recognized nationally for nearly twenty years as a model program for court-related dispute resolution services until it closed in 2008, when its founder and owner, Florence Rubin, passed away.

       Prior to becoming a neutral in 1992, Ms. Roth was a litigation attorney for eight years, working with the San Francisco law firms Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison and Farella, Braun & Martel.  In private practice, Ms. Roth represented, among others, multi-national firms in class action securities and accounting litigation, a municipal owner, general, and sub contractors in various construction actions, the corporate owner of real property in an EPA superfund action, immigrants in INS matters, registered representatives and individual investors in various NASD securities arbitrations, a film company in various franchise actions; employers and employees in various wrongful termination and discipline matters, including the City of San Francisco in a high-profile administrative hearing.  Many of these cases also involved taxation, bankruptcy, and insurance coverage issues. 

       While she was working at Brobeck in 1989, she co-authored her first book on arbitration.

       Prior to private practice, Ms. Roth worked as an enforcement attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Los Angeles, where, among other things, she prosecuted cases involving market manipulation, ponzi schemes, insider trading, and regulatory violations.  In this position, she litigated in Federal Court and in administrative proceedings.

       As a litigation attorney, Ms. Roth gained substantial experience in pleading, discovery, and motion practice, administrative & regulatory work, negotiation, arbitration, first chair trial and appellate practice.

Neutral Panel Memberships     

       Bette Roth mediates and arbitrates both directly and through several private providers, including the CPR's Panel of Distinguished Neutrals; the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), Boston's Real Estate Bar Association ("REBA"); FINRA, the successor to the National Association of Securities Dealers (“NASD”) (mediation only), and Case Closed.  Ms. Roth is also on the rosters of the Massachusetts Board of Conciliation & Arbitration, the Massachusetts Superior Courts as a “Qualified Neutral”, and a Special Master, Receiver & Arbitrator. 

       In addition, from 2000 through 2007, Ms. Roth mediated for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as one of three per diem mediators for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (“MCAD”) and as one of fourteen per diem mediators for the Massachusetts Appeals Court, until that program concluded in 2002.

 Substantive Areas 

       During the past twenty four years of practice in litigation, arbitration, mediation, and conciliation, Ms. Roth has handled the following types of cases:

• Accounting
• Administrative (federal, state, municipal)
• Bankruptcy
• Business (contract and torts including taxation issues)
• Civil rights (see discrimination)
• Closed corporations (freeze-out, severance, stock valuation)
• Commercial (UCC and common law)
• Construction (residential, commercial, and municipal)
• Contracts (commercial, business, employment, construction, international)
• Consumer (93A)
• Defamation (employment, business)
• Discrimination (age, gender, disability, racial, place of origin, religion)
• Education (professor, teachers, and student claims)
• Employment (wrongful termination, independent contractor, non-compete)
• Environmental (superfund, disposal, drainage) 
• Family (property, support, CHINS, family business)
• Franchise
• Health care (clients, service providers, employment)
• Housing (landlord-tenant, discrimination, lead paint)
• Immigration
• Insurance
• Intellectual property
• Joint venture
• Land use (residential, city, adverse posession, zoning)
• Leases (commercial equipment, property)
• Malpractice (professional)
• Partnership
• Personal Injury
• Real estate (sales, commissions, contract, title claims, torts)
• Securities (customer, fraud, negligence, suitability, churning, unauthorized trading, intra-industry, shareholder class action)
• Sexual harassment
• Taxation
• Torts (business, personal injury)

Awards and Publications 

       Bette Roth was named a 2007 and 2006 New England and Massachusetts Super Lawyer by Boston Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine.  Massachusetts Super Lawyers are selected each year based upon the votes of more than 31,000 experienced Massachusetts lawyers.  Only 5 percent of the total lawyers in Massachusetts are listed as Super Lawyers.  She was recognized in the Alternative Dispute Resolution practice area.

       Ms. Roth received the John Dunlop Dispute Resolution Award for Innovative Systems Design from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2001 for her work in mediation. 

       Ms. Roth has published a number of books on dispute resolution.  She is the primary editor and author of The Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Guide, a national 2-volume set with annual updates (copyright © 1993-2008 Thomson/West), which was a finalist for the 1994 CPR book award.  She updates this Practice Guide each year by publishing the annual supplements and replacement pages. 

       Ms. Roth also co-authored Securities Arbitration: Special Report (Wiley Law Publications 1989), and has edited & coauthored continuing legal education books: Arbitration Practice and Update 2007 (MCLE 2007); Court Mandated Basic Training for Arbitrators (MCLE 2005); What Every Lawyer Should Know About Arbitration  (MCLE 2004); Arbitration Practice and Update 2002 (MLCE 2002); and  Securities Litigation: State and Federal (CCLE 1988).

       In addition to books, Ms. Roth frequently publishes articles on mediation and arbitration, including: "Class Action Arbitrations: A First Circuit Update" (Boston Bar Journal, March/April 2008) (co-author) “Litigation Tactics in Mediation: Are They Ethical?” (Mass. Lawyer’s Weekly, Feb. 2005); “Ethical Considerations for Advocates in Mediation” (Boston Bar Association 2004); “Ten Suggestions for Negotiation in Employment Mediation” (The Practical Lawyer, ALI-ABA, Oct. 2004, reprinted at the request of the AICPA for the 2006 edition of Selected Readings by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants); “Maximizing the Potential of Mediation” (Mass. Lawyers Weekly, Apr. 2004)(co-author), “Mediating Your Securities Disputes Successfully” (NSCP Currents, Winter 2004); “Selecting the Right Organization and the Arbitrator” (Mass. Lawyers Weekly, Feb. 2003). 

       With Dean-Emeritus Carstensen, Ms. Roth published "Per Se Legality of Some Naked Restraints: A [Re]Conceptualization of the Antitrust Analysis of Cartelistic Organizations” (The Antitrust Bulletin,  July 2000).

Speaking engagements & ADR instruction  

       Ms. Roth teaches the class, Mediation: Theory & Practice, at Boston University School of Law.  She also speaks frequently on dispute resolution and has trained other mediators and arbitrators through the Boston Bar Association, Mediation Works, Inc., and MCLE.  She has helped to train students and other youths through Framingham Court Mediation Services, PAWS at Newton North High School, and Boston's Summer of Opportunity. 

       Recent Continuing legal education programs taught by Ms. Roth include "Arbitration Practice and Update 2007" (chair); an 8-hour arbitrator training program (co-chair) (MCLE 2005); speaking at “Mediating Employment Cases” (faculty) (Boston Bar Association 2004); “What Every Lawyer Should Know About Arbitration” (chair)(MCLE 2004); and “Arbitration Practice and Update 2002” (co-chair) (MCLE 2002). 

Mediation Style

       Ms. Roth starts the process for each case by preparing for the mediation.  This typically involves speaking to counsel in advance of the session (to also help them prepare) and reading the materials they submit. 

        Every mediation is unique.  Between the parties, the facts, the law, the personalities of counsel, and the history of negotiation, each  mediation session involves a delicate balance of interests.  Many parties feel the need to be heard in order to put the dispute behind them.  At the same time, their only alternative to settlement is adjudication.  For these reasons, Ms. Roth combines facilitative and evaluative techniques in the mediation to keep the process moving forward and the parties focused on settlement.  She brings to the table her years of experience as a litigation attorney and as an arbitrator to credibly help the parties identify their interests, consider their case strengths and weaknesses, explore various outcomes, evaluate and fashion proposals, and move toward resolution. 

       In those cases in which the mediation does not conclude during the scheduled session, Ms. Roth always follows up with counsel and/or parties, typically by telephone, until a resolution is reached.   The result is settlement in at least 93% of the cases she mediates.

ADR training

       Ms. Roth has had extensive training in dispute resolution. Most recently she completed the AAA Continuing Education trainings on Chairing a Panel (2007) and on Pro Se Arbitration (2006).  Prior to that, she completed the AAA Arb. II training (2005).  This followed the AAA Arb. I training in 2003, and the AAA basic arbitrator training in 1991.  She also completed conciliation training with the Superior Court; advanced mediator training for housing disputes (FCMS 2001); discrimination prevention training certification with MCLE/MCAD (24 hours, 2000); peer mediation trainer training with the Attorney General’s Office (1998); advanced mediator training for family systems and employment (FCMS 1997); basic mediator training & certification (35 hours, FCMS 1997); and mediation training and mentoring with Randall Wulff (San Francisco 1995). 

Education          

       Bette Roth received her J.D. in 1984 from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she was an editor of The Wisconsin International Law Journal.  Her undergraduate degree was in economics, cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1981.  Ms. Roth also studied at the University of Paris, Sorbonne, where she earned a “Certificat de Langue Français” (1981).

Bar and professional memberships 

       Ms. Roth has been appointed since 2005 as the Co-Chair of the Litigation and International Sections' ADR Committee of the Boston Bar Association.  In 2005, she served on that section's task force for drafting proposed legislation relating to mediator confidentiality.          

       Ms. Roth holds State Bar memberships in Massachusetts (1985), California (1985), and Wisconsin (1984).  She is or has been a member of the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association, and the Women’s Bar Association, and the New England Chapter for the Association of Conflict Resolution (“NEACR”). 

Community service

       From 2001-2002, Ms. Roth was the co-president of the Zervas Elementary School Council, and an elected member from 1999-2001.  She served on the board of directors for the Hyde Community Center from 1997-2003, and was an elected member of the Newton Highlands Neighborhood Area Council from 1998 -2001.  She contributes time each year since 1997 to city service for garden and building maintenance and holiday projects.  Ms. Roth has mediated on a pro bono basis neighbor and family disputes for FCMS since 1997, and has served as a judge for moot court competitions.  In 1998, she led volunteers in her community to fund, design, and build a memorial playground.

Lawyers' written statements (unsolicited)  

       "Let me say at the outset how pleased I was to work with such a terrific mediator..."

       "I must admit that… I did not enter the mediation with any expectation of success in bringing the matter to a resolution.  However, to my astonishment… the parties were able to reach an acceptable settlement in this most difficult case.  Ms. Roth’s professionalism throughout the painstaking, three hour mediation, enabled both sides not only to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of each others case, but also enabled the parties to creatively craft a compromise that seemed impossible at the outset."

       "…I will certainly utilize your services on behalf of [other] clients.  I found your work on the matter we worked on together to be extremely caring and quite productive."

       "I just wanted to thank you for your generous assistance and good work at the mediation today.  All too often I’ve had the experience of attempting to find a resolution of a case around or through the mediator; it was a relief to know that the process today was in such capable hands.  And it’s a terrific outcome for all of the parties.  Thanks again for helping to make it happen."

       "…. At the outset of the mediation, it was clear that the respective parties had diametrically opposed views of the relevant facts.  However, utilizing both her legal and negotiation skills, a compromise resolution was achieved.  Throughout the duration of the mediation, Ms. Roth impressed me as being a very dedicated, hard working individual who was both motivated and extremely conscientious and aware of her obligations as a mediator to bring about a resolution.  I sincerely believe that without her intervention in this case, it would never have settled."

       "You did a great job on my mediation, which was a tough one."

       "I appreciate your hard work at yesterday's mediation.  In several respects, it was a tough case to mediate, and you handled it professionally and skillfully.  Thanks again."

       "Thank you Bette for smoothly handling the complexities of yesterday's mediation.  Nancy and I look forward to working with you again."

       "Thanks again for your very talented and successful mediation efforts in this case."

References from counsel or parties are available.

Home