The Instructor

Trained as a mediator in 1994, Lee Jay began mediating full time in 1995. He founded the Institute for Mediation Studies in Santa Monica in late 1995 and taught basic and advanced mediation skills there through 2002. In 1999, he accepted a position as the ADR Director with the Santa Barbara Superior Court. Upon returning to Los Angeles in 2000, he taught basic and advanced courses for that Institute as well as for the Institute of Conflict Management.

That same year, the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine Law School (ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report from 2004-2010) named him an Adjunct Professor and Director of their flagship "Mediating the Litigated Case" program, teaching in that program as well as the "Advanced Mediators Forum" and “Strategic Negotiation Skills” at Pepperdine Law School, Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama and Lipscomb University in Nashville. Working with Doctor Lowry and the Pepperdine faculty in an outside consulting firm, as well as Erica Fox's firm with faculty from Harvard’s Program on Negotiation, Lee Jay traveled to 17 states, as well as Amsterdam and Dubai in an 18 month period teaching mediation, conflict resolution, negotiation and client development skills to judges, lawyers, business leaders and insurance claims professionals.

From 2003-2007, Lee Jay served as the national Chair of the Training Committee for the American Bar Association's Section on Dispute Resolution, developing and conducting training programs around the country for mediators and advocates.

Working with the United Stated Agency for International Development in 2003, Lee Jay put on an advanced mediation skills training in Los Angeles for a group of mediators from post-war Croatia. Soon thereafter, Lee Jay became a Dispute Resolution Expert for the United Nations Development Programme.

Working with the Institute for the Study and Development of Legal Systems in 2005, Lee Jay traveled to Delhi, India to train a group of judges in mediation skills, observe and coach their mediations in chambers, and help to write the Delhi High Court's Mediation Rule of Law, which was later adopted by the Indian Supreme Court.

In 2008, Lee Jay founded the American Institute of Mediation offering "World Class Training for the Complete Mediator", and delivered by surrounding himself with an all-star core faculty that included Ken Cloke, Erica Ariel Fox, Jim Melamed, Forrest "Woody" Mosten, Jim Melamed, Doug Noll and Mel Rubin. The AIM Institute quickly rose to national prominence as the place where leading mediators turn to continue their learning and career development.

Lee Jay continues to be a top draw at the ABA Dispute Resolution Section and Association of Conflict Resolution Annual Conferences, as well as delivering keynote addresses and trainings at statewide mediator and bar association conferences, including Alabama, California, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, with Arizona slated for early 2011.

Lee Jay has been a conflict analyst on the KTLA 5 Morning News in Los Angeles and he has published dozens of articles on Mediation and negotiation. He is a popular and motivating speaker on topics including negotiation, conflict resolution, ADR and ADR Ethics. He co-hosts a radio talk show on conflict resolution called Talk It Over and authors the popular blog Eye On Conflict.