Richard D. Fincher, Esq.
Mediator and Arbitrator
Workplace Resolutions LLC
Richard Fincher is currently an Adjunct Instructor at the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University, teaching in the neutral education and student clinical program. He is also an Instructor in negotiations at the Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law at ASU.
He is also the Managing Partner of Workplace Resolutions LLC, a national workplace dispute resolution practice. He is a mediator and arbitrator of labor, employment, commercial, and class action litigation. He serves on the Labor, Commercial, Mass Claims, and Employment Panels of the American Arbitration Association. He serves on the railroad panels of the National Mediation Board and the employment arbitration panel of CPR.
Richard’s primary practice includes labor and employment arbitration. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and serves on numerous permanent labor panels. He is the former Chair of the Phoenix Employment Relations Board (PERB) and former Chair of the Public Safety Retirement Board of Paradise Valley, Az. He also has a robust mediation practice in the private and federal sectors, including US Postal Resolve.
He has a significant international experience. He served as an USAID Scholar in workplace ADR for Vietnam. In 2013, he was appointed as Director of the Asian Labor Arbitration Project (ALAP) at Cornell University. In 2015, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach dispute resolution at Ton Duc Thang University, in Vietnam. He is currently consulting in Myanmar and Cambodia, and teaching ADR in two Chinese law schools under federal grants.
He has served on the National Board of Directors for the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), and the National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA).
Richard has authored several journal articles on labor arbitration and employment mediation, and is co-author of the text “Emerging Systems for Managing Workplace Conflict,” published by Jossey-Bass, by Lipsky/Seeber/Fincher.
Kay Pranis
Kay Pranis teaches and writes about the dialog process known as ‘peacemaking circles.’ Kay learned about peacemaking circles in her work in restorative justice in the mid-90s. From 1994 – 2003 Kay held the position of Restorative Justice Planner at the MN Dept. of Corrections, the first government position in the US related directly to the framework of restorative justice.
Her initial teachers in the circle work were Barry Stuart, a judge in Yukon, Canada, and Mark Wedge and Harold Gatensby, First Nations people of Yukon. Since that initial exposure to the use of peacemaking circles in the justice system Kay has been involved in developing the use of peacemaking circles in schools, social services, churches, families, museums, universities, municipal planning and workplaces.
Kay has authored or co-authored several books about circles: Peacemaking Circles – From Conflict to Community; The Little Book of Circle Processes – A New/Old Approach to Peacemaking; Doing Democracy with Circles – Engaging Communities in Public Planning; Heart of Hope – A Guide for Using Peacemaking Circles to Develop Emotional Literacy, Promote Healing & Build Healthy Relationships; Circle Forward – Building a Restorative School Community.
Kay works primarily as a trainer in the peacemaking circle process. She is also an adjunct professor at Eastern Mennonite University.
Kay has a particular interest in the use of circles to support social justice efforts addressing racial, economic, class and gender inequities. That interest includes the use of peacemaking circles to understand and respond to historical harms to groups of people. The peacemaking circle process has been a source of energy, inspiration and continuous learning for Kay for the past 20 years.