Anne Bloom, Founder of ARB Mediation Services, Inc.
I arrived in South Florida in 1962, at the age of three. (Real natives do not consider me a native, but I’m close to qualifying.)
I headed up North to graduate from Yale University in 1979 and came back home to graduate from the University of Miami Law School in 1982; though I hated cold weather, I gave it one more shot in Washington DC before returning to Miami to be a commercial litigator at Blackwell Walker followed by Holland and Knight. I moved to Israel in 1990, shortly before the Gulf War broke out and stayed for 8 years, during which time I learned to bargain and negotiate for everything, including much of the food I bought and fixing the telephone line (in Hebrew!) I used to say that being a litigator was great preparation for living in Israel. Now I can say that living in Israel is great preparation for being a mediator.
In 1998, at the first opportunity, I became a Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediator in both Family and Circuit Civil, fulfilling a destiny I had put on hold by moving away. Now here I am, over ten years later, with the problem solving company of my dreams. This is a place where people matter. Everyone has a need to be met, and it is the role of the mediator to help piece together the facts and the human factors in a way that makes sense and encourages results.
That’s why, especially as an arbitrator, I look for a time line of events and supporting evidence. As a mediator I find it very helpful to use actual documents, letters, receipts, etc, to nail down specifics. We live in an age that has made skeptics out of all of us. But it also makes us want to believe in doing the right thing.
Resolution is a key component in being able to move on in life. To that end, this web site strives to demonstrate how much better life can be when problems are dealt with instead of being allowed to fester. Once exposed to the light of day, it is possible to find a solution.
When we all aim for the high road, we often get there together. To that end, our goal is to serve as the bridge to resolve problems and conclude disputes.
