Minnesota Lawyer
The co-founder of the Greene Espel firm now keeps busy as a mediator and arbitrator for JAMS, the world’s largest private alternative dispute resolution provider. That organization’s panel includes more than 400 retired state and federal court judges, attorneys and other ADR professionals.
The work is not new to Greene.
“That kind of work was a component of a varied litigation practice,” Greene said. “I did serve as a mediator and arbitrator at times while I was in private practice.”
In Greene’s view, those areas of legal work haven’t changed a great deal.
“An effective mediator can understand the perspectives of each side and gain their trust so that they can find a resolution that’s better than ongoing conflict,” he said. “And I see arbitration becoming a more common alternative to litigation.”
Apart from helping start one of the Twin Cities’ most versatile boutique firms, Greene has gone to great lengths to help the Minnesota bar. He chaired the District of Minnesota’s Local Rules Advisory Committee at the invitation of three different chief judges; he was William Mitchell College of Law’s first Distinguished Practitioner in Residence; and has received the Sidney Barrows Lifetime Commitment Award from the Minnesota Cardozo Society.
Without his hand on the tiller, Greene would like to see his old firm thrive in whatever direction it’s organically taken.
“The folks at Greene Espel are very independent,” he said. “They’re empowered to strike in any direction they want to go. While I’m cheering from the sideline, I’m not offering any advice. It seems that the firm is doing well with the same principles we had when we started in 1993.”
Read more about Minnesota Lawyer’s superb class of Attorneys of the Year for 2022 here.
