Are you looking for an arbitrator, facilitator, or mediator in Juneau or the rest of Alaska? Stephen Sorensen is an expert in dispute resolution with years of experience helping people like you. His dispute resolution practice includes being an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association, as well as facilitating labor and employment disputes, mediation of labor and employment disputes, interest arbitration, arbitrated and mediated collective bargaining agreements issues.  He has handling numerous labor grievance resolutions and labor arbitration hearings. He is a member of both Alaska and Montana Bar Associations.

About the Juneau Mediation Center

 Services

Stephen Sorensen is a certified arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.  He is an expert in mediation, facilitation, and conflict resolution. He has experience arbitrating and mediating labor law disputes and grievances.

 Background

With over 30 years of experience, we know how to get the job done right. For most of Mr. Sorensen's legal career, he has tried to solve problems without the need of litigation.  He is more a negotiator than a litigator. He believes that legal representation always encompasses some form of counseling, and has incorporated this element in his capacity as an attorney by practicing preventive law to avoid reactive law.  As such, Mr. Sorensen has tried to assist his clients in problem solving as a means of achieving goals and resolving conflict without the need of litigation.  Mr. Sorensen is passionate about the potential mediation holds for resolving conflict at all levels.
          Stephen Sorensen's philosophy of mediation is an interest-based approach.  Mediation is a confidential facilitative process whereby the mediator, as a neutral, assists the parties in identifying the issues, understanding their interests, creating options, and establishing criteria to evaluate alternatives with the goal of reaching an agreement that resolves the conflict without coercion.  Guiding the parties to make informed decisions and appropriate resolutions of conflict is paramount to the mediation practice.
          Stephen has been involved in differing venues of law practice encompassing contracts, construction claims, employee benefits, labor management, and employee/employer relations. He has worked on complex issues with multiple parties, as well as with buyers and sellers, contractors and developers, management and union, and employer and employee.  The variety of his practice offers many opportunities for the use of his mediation and arbitration skills.
          Stephen Sorensen is a certified arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association and a member of the Alaska Bar Association’s ADR Section, as well as a member of the Association of Conflict Resolution.

Credentials

Stephen Sorensen has a Bachelor of Arts Degree,  Summa  Cum Laude, in Anthropology & Sociology, University of Montana 1973.  He received his law degree from the University of Montana Law School 1980. Stephen completed his American Arbitration Association mediation training in 2006 and is a certified AAA trained mediator  He completed the American Arbitration Association Arbitrator II training in 2017. He has also received Hearing Officer Training -- Seattle University, through its National Academy for IDEA Administrative Law Judges and Impartial Hearing Officers in 2014. .

Why Arbitration or Mediation?

Arbitration, Facilitation, and Mediation are forms of Conflict Resolution  by which you can resolve the conflict in your life without going to court or.  Whatever the conflict, arbitration and mediation hold the answers to resolving any conflict in manner suitable to you.

Contacting an arbitrator or a  mediator is one of the first steps to help resolve that conflict or dispute you have.