Genesis Fisher, Esq., is a seasoned mediator who is highly adept at guiding corporations and organizations, entrepreneurs, and families through the resolution of matters that are often emotionally sensitive and highly contentious. She has earned a well-deserved reputation as a mediator who is able to see all sides of an issue and to apply workable, fair, and creative solutions to a wide array of business and personal disputes. She strives to understand parties’ interests and inspires them to think differently about opportunities to resolve conflicts.

She especially enjoys handling challenging and multifaceted ADR matters in multiple practice areas including, but not limited to, employment and labor, civil rights, family disputes, and business and commercial matters in pre-litigation and litigated stages.

Ms. Fisher’s well-honed ADR skills are rooted in her experience as an attorney, law professor, and mediation trainer. She is the former director of the Mediation Clinic at New York Law School and, as an adjunct professor since 2014, has taught more than a dozen courses on negotiation, legal writing skills, and conflict resolution at New York Law School, Rutgers Law School, and John Jay College. She is certified by the New York State Unified Court System to teach a 24-Hour Initial Mediation Training course for those seeking to mediate within the state court system. At JAMS, she is a member of a professional team that provides ADR skills training to JAMS neutrals on a year-round basis. She applies this rich panoply of mediation and negotiation skills in the service of her ADR clients when resolving even the most intractable disputes.

Prior to her career in dispute resolution, Ms. Fisher spent a decade as a criminal defense trial attorney. She represented thousands of clients in high stakes litigation and developed a reputation for crafting creative legal strategies and solutions, applying her negotiation prowess, and establishing strong bonds of trust with clients. She began her legal career at the Southern Poverty Law Center working on national civil rights issues and advocating for the improvement of jail conditions and state women's prison reform.

As an experienced ADR practitioner, negotiation/mediation educator, small business owner, and trial attorney, she seamlessly guides deeply entrenched parties to resolution through a powerful combination of legal acumen, hard work, empathy, creativity, and dogged determination.

ADR Experience and Qualifications

Representative Matters

• Business Commercial
• Mediated disputes involving co-founder separation agreements, facilitations with senior management teams and the C-suite, change management leadership support, creating/updating organization dispute resolution policies, and high-conflict dialogues for executive management and boards of directors 
• Mediated a tech co-founder separation agreement involving public social media dispute where one party bought out the other with a thorough and equitable arrangement that explored compensation, equity, intellectual property, noncompetes, nondisclosure agreements and personal matters, among other terms 
• Served as facilitator in dialogues involving board members who could not complete their fiduciary duties; helped to create a new governance and communication model to avoid future disputes
• Employment Law
• Mediated matters involving discrimination, including race, gender, age, disability, religion, national origin and sexual orientation; wage and hour claims; employee counseling; and sexual harassment
• Family Law
• Mediated matters involving custody and visitation agreements; stipulations of settlement; separation agreements; intergenerational conflict and asset agreements; spousal and child support; marriage and domestic partner dissolution; and division of property, assets and benefits 
• Mediated a separation agreement in a high-conflict matter with two prominent parents that resulted in an innovative custody and visitation arrangement and a graduated financial arrangement

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

ADR Panels and Certifications
Current:

• United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, Mediation Panel
• Certified Mediator, New York Peace Institute
• New York State Unified Court System, Certified Instructor for 24-Hour Initial Mediation Training Course

• Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Arbitrator
• Supervisor, New York County Small Claims Court Mediation Program, 2018-2023
• Mediation Panelist, Center for Creative Conflict Resolution, 2019-2020
• Apprenticeship Instructor, Training Coach, and Mediation Panelist, New York Peace Institute, 2016-2020
• Mediator, New York City Family Court Mediation Program, 2017-2019

Selected Presentations and Media Appearances

• Moderator, “The Ethics of Authenticity,” LGBTQ Bar Association of New York and JAMS, Inc., 2024
• Panelist, “Mediating Complex and Emotionally Charged Disputes,” New York State Bar Association, Dispute Resolution Section, 2024
• Television Interview, “Keeping the Peace During Election Season,” Arizona’s Family News Live at 3, 2024
• Co-Presenter, “The Power of Empathy and Chemistry of Trust in the Workplace,” Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) Annual Conference, 2024
• Panelist, “The Diversity Imperative in ADR,” Lavender Law Conference, 2024
• Panelist, “Mediator Strengths: Maximizing Your Potential,” Academy of Professional Family Mediators, 2024
• Panelist, “Pride in ADR,” Federal Bar Association, ADR Section, 2024
• Presenter, “Essential Mediation Skills for Managers,” New York City SHRM Biennial Conference, 2023
• Panelist, “Mediator Mindset: The Inside Job of a Family Mediator,” Academy of Professional Family Mediators, 2023
• Podcast Guest, “Building a Mediation Practice,” American Bar Association, Dispute Resolution Section Podcast, Resolution, 2023
• Panelist, “Conflict Resolution Can Help Emerging Businesses Avoid and Resolve Internal Issues,” American Bar Association, Dispute Resolution Virtual Conference, 2022
• Presenter, “3 Mediation Approaches That Leaders Can Use to Connect with Their Team,” PRIDE Tech Virtual Summit, 2022
• Moderator, New York Law School ADR and Diversity Symposium, with Special Guest, Former Governor David A. Paterson, Moderator of the Virtual, 2022
• Panelist, “Optimizing You and Your Case for Mediation,” New York State Bar Association, 2021
• Presenter, “Seeing the Matrix: How the Quest for Neutrality Forces Us to Articulate Our Own Values,” Annual Conference, New York State Dispute Resolution Association, 2020
• “Negotiation in the Age of Coronavirus and Beyond: The Mediator's Perspective,” New York State Bar Association, 2020
• Presenter, “Communicating Effectively in the Workplace,” National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, 2020
• Panelist, “Diversity in Employment Mediation,” National Employment Lawyers Association, New York (NELA-NY) Night, 2019
• Panelist, "Getting Started in Your Career in Conflict Resolution," Columbia University, Master's Program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, 2018
• Panelist, "Preparing for Oral Arguments," New York University School of Law, 2018
• Panelist, "The Very Human Mediating Party: Mediators Self Reflect on Life and Conflict," ACR-GNY Conference, 2017 

Selected Publications and Media References

• “Nurturing Workplace Well-Being: Beyond Individuals to Community,” Hr.com, 2024
• “Spring 2024 Thought Leadership Awards – United States,” mondaq.com, 2024
• Genesis Fisher, Esq., and Deirdre McCarthy Gallagher, Esq., Award in the All Topics and Employment and HR categories in the United States for the podcast “JAMS Neutrals Discuss JAMS Pathways and Addressing Evolving Workplace Conflict”
• “The Top Five Issues in Startup Co-Founder Separations,” by Shirish Gupta and Genesis Fisher, JAMS ADR Insights, December 2021 

Background and Education

• Mediator, JAMS, Inc.
• Lead Neutral, JAMS Pathways 
• Principal Attorney and Mediator, Fisher Law Practice, P.C. 
• Trial Attorney, Legal Aid Society of New York City, 2008-2016
• Legal Fellow, Southern Poverty Law Center, 2006-2008
• Former Director, Mediation Clinic, New York Law School, 2022-2023
• Adjunct Law Professor, New York Law School 
• Lead Professor, 2020-2022, Mediation Clinic 
• Mediation Clinic Supervisor, 2018-2020
• Advanced Legal Methods course, 2018-2020
• Negotiation, Counseling and Interviewing course, 2014-2017 
• Adjunct Law Professor, Mediation, Rutgers Law School, 2020
• Adjunct Professor, Sociology Practicum on Conflict Resolution, John Jay College, 2020
• J.D., New York University School of Law, 2006
• B.A., Sociology and Anthropology, Smith College, 2000

• New York
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York