Training, Lectures, and Students. . .Oh My!

Things have gotten much busier. The last few weeks have been a blur of activity, and thankfully, productivity. The overall disposition towards mediation continues to pick up and gain more and more acceptance. Things are coming to fruition more quickly. Much of the current progress is attributable to the placement of a new Registrar, John Arutu, who is organizing and facilitating mediation in the Commercial Court to an extent heretofor unseen, on an administrative level. That has been a huge help. He is also gone through training to become the third active mediator currently practicing in the Commercial Court. The other is my counterpart from South Africa, Ms. Nox Ntuli. She is an excellent lawyer and mediator who has been in the court since late last year, but has been developing the new training materials for training mediators, as well as taking on a full mediation docket. I will try and get a good picture of the three of us together and post it.

As I was mentioning, the disposition towards mediation is starting to turn towards the positive. Last Thursday the 13th we held a very large, half-day event in a local hotel. With 70+ CEO's, MD's (Managing Directors), and other Executives, Judges, Law School Administrators, and Court Staff, Justice Kiryabwire and I both gave presentations on the advantages, challenges, and background of mediation, along with the role that the court users play. The event was very well-attended, by both participants and press. I had my first television interview. Unfortunately, I did not get to see it, but others said they saw me. We were honored to have the Honorable Principal Judge Ogoola (3rd Highest Judge in Uganda) open the workshop and the Honorable Chief Justice Odoki (Highest Judge in Uganda) close the workshop. The entire event was giant success, with many of the heads of Uganda's biggest companies (banks, telecom, construction) attending and getting acquainted with why mediation is should be taken seriously and a good faith participation is to their advantage.

Now, with May quickly coming to a close, I will be receiving ten law students from Pepperdine this weekend--and the snowball just keeps getting bigger. It will be great to have the students here, and I get the privilege of orienting them, as Justice Kiryabwire is in Paris sitting on a UN Appeals Board for a few weeks.

Next month will bring more trainings, adventures with the students, the World Cup (I am getting to attend, thankfully), and more mediation. Hopefully you all won't resent me too much for not having posted in three weeks, but wanted to give you and update and give you the tree top of the past and coming months. Will post more as soon as I can.

Peace to you all.