Mock Arbitration with Mike Loconto Esq. and Rebekah J. Smith Esq.

Please join us for a live, in-person workshop where you will have an opportunity to participate in a mock labor arbitration hearing. Led by two Boston-area labor arbitrators, attendees will have a chance to role-play and observe the typical stages of a hearing.  These include: the arbitrator’s introduction; the opening statements from union and management representatives; witness testimony; objections; admitting evidence; presenting facts; and making closing arguments.  Attendees will gain practical techniques, advocacy skills, insights, tips, and strategies to prepare for your next labor arbitration hearing. The arbitrators will explain the various stages of the hearing and will offer practical advice for attendees.

Rebekah Smith Bio:

Since 2005, Rebekah Smith has provided arbitration and impartial neutral services in labor and employment matters.  She is on the labor arbitration panels of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the American Arbitration Association, and the Labor Relations Connection; the fact-finding panel of the Maine Labor Relations Board; and multiple permanent panels including those serving the states of Maine and Massachusetts.  Ms. Smith was recently reappointed as a neutral Alternate Chair on the Maine Labor Relations Board.  She is Past Board President of LERA-Maine and of the Maine Association of Mediators and remains a member of the boards of both organizations.

Ms. Smith’s arbitration practice, which is centered in New England and Washington, D.C., encompasses a wide variety of issues and workplaces.  She has received training through AAA, FMCS, and the National Academy of Arbitrators New Arbitrators Salon and DEIB Initiative.

Her neutral practice has also included service as an administrative hearing officer for a variety of administrative agencies involved in the trades and mediation in employment matters.  Ms. Smith received her bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Bowdoin College, and her law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Maine School of Law.  She served as a judicial clerk for the Chief Justice Daniel Wathen of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and subsequently for Judge Frank M. Coffin of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit before conducting a two-year Skadden Fellowship representing clients in the Maine legislature and through impact litigation prior to her neutral career, the only recipient of the Skadden Fellowship from UMaine Law to date.