MWI Divorce Mediation Panel


William M. Levine is an experienced attorney, arbitrator and mediator and is a partner at the law firm Lee & Levine, LLP where his practice focuses mostly on divorce and related matters, including property, support, custody, paternity, antenuptial agreements, equity and other litigation matters. Mr. Levine joined MWI’s Divorce Panel of Mediators in January of 2009. Before entering the private practice of law, Mr. Levine served as a child abuse and neglect litigator for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Social Services. Mr. Levine is identified in every edition of Naifeh & Smith's The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Family Law since 1995. He was identified as one of "The Top 100" in Worth Magazine’s guide to the nation’s best lawyers (December 2005). He has received recognition as one of the "Top 100 Lawyers" in all practice areas in Massachusetts as a “Super Lawyer” in Boston Magazine’s Law & Politics Massachusetts Super Lawyers, since its 2005 inception. He was also awarded the same recognition in Boston Magazine’s Law and Politics New England Super Lawyers since 2007, when it began. Mr. Levine was included as one of only four Family Law practitioners in Boston Magazine’s “The Best Lawyers” edition (October 2002). Mr. Levine has also authored numerous articles on matters of Family and he teaches frequently, primarily as a chair of continuing legal education programs and as a guest lecturer at law schools, bar associations and other groups.


Alan Geismer is an experienced mediator and is a partner at the firm of Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak and Cohen, P.C where he has more than thirty years of experience in matrimonial, probate and civil litigation. He has substantial experience litigating and negotiating complex family law matters including divorce, child custody, property division, alimony, child support, visitation, contempt, modification, removal, and paternity actions. He has also represented clients in the negotiation of prenuptial agreements. In addition to his trial work, Alan is an experienced mediator and serves as personal counsel for many individual clients. He is a frequent lecturer on family law issues at programs sponsored by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. and various professional and bar associations. Alan contributed the chapter in the Massachusetts Divorce Law Practice Manual (MCLE 2008) entitled “The Client Interview”. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a board member of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association of Family & Conciliation Courts. In February of 2009, Mr. Geismer joined MWI’s Divorce Panel of Mediators.

Cynthia Monteiro is a mediator and trainer with MWI and has recently retired from the WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School after 29 years of service as a Paralegal, Mediator and Clinical Instructor. She also supervised students in the area of family law and mediation. In 1994 she started the Family Mediation Project in addition to her work coordinating the Center’s long-running Pro Se divorce clinic teaching people how to represent themselves. Cynthia mediates with Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI) and Children’s Services of Roxbury and Massachusetts Families for Kids (MFFK). She has conducted divorce and basic mediation trainings throughout New England and also coaches mediation students at Boston College, University of Massachusetts and Suffolk Law School. Cynthia is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the American Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution, the Association of American Law Schools Dispute Resolution Section, is a board member of Bright Futures Adoption Agency and past board member of the Alliance for Young Families. Before entering the world of law and mediation Cynthia was a pediatric nurse and kindergarten teacher. Her professional career has been focused on children and families.
 

Nnena Odim is a mediator, trainer, attorney, and consultant. She has been mediating since 1997 and has mediated disputes involving issues such as employment, housing, business, consumer, and the full range of family/domestic relations (elder care, adoption, care and protection, CHINS, divorce, grandparent visitation, etc.). In Nnena’s permanency mediation practice she works closely with parents, children, guardians, therapists, teachers, and the Department of Social Services, in order to help all parties come to a resolution about the future stability and well-being of a child in DSS custody. Nnena has also designed and led numerous conflict management trainings for several local businesses and agencies, including the Boston Public Schools. In addition to her mediation and conflict resolution training background, Nnena is a staff attorney and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Hale and Dorr Legal Services. She conducts trainings for the Harvard Mediation Program and has supervised students in their mediation studies. She has also participated in the small claims court mediation program in the local District Courts, where she mediated a variety of consumer, personal injury, landlord-tenant, interpersonal, and business disputes.


Josh Hoch is a mediator, trainer, and is Director of Mediation Services at Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI). In this capacity, Josh supervises mediators who conduct over 700 mediations for MWI each year. He manages cases referred from individuals, organizations, companies, EAP’s, therapists, law firms, attorneys in private practice, judges, and for 26 divisions within Massachusetts Trial Court System including the Massachusetts BMC & District Court Department, the Probate and Family Court Department, and the Land Court Department. A mediator since 1996, Josh mediates family, divorce, parenting, child support, never married parents, housing, and eviction cases with MWI and other ADR organizations. In addition to his mediation work, Josh is also a member of MWI's training faculty and leads advanced divorce, eviction, and corporate mediation trainings in Massachusetts and throughout the United States. Josh is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), and is on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Chapter of AFCC where he serves as Chair of the ADR Committee. Josh has been featured in the Boston Globe and on the award-winning New England newsmagazine television show "Chronicle" where he provided information about marriage, divorce and the use of divorce and family mediation in Massachusetts.
 

Diane Levin is a dispute resolution professional providing dispute management services, consulting, and training in conflict resolution, negotiation, and teambuilding. Before becoming a mediator full-time, Diane practiced labor, employment, municipal, tort, and probate law. A mediator since 1995, Diane has conducted mediations in disputes in litigation or for private clients in divorce, probate, elder, and family business matters, as well as tort, workplace, and real estate cases. An experienced trainer of mediation, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills both in Massachusetts and nationally, Diane has taught thousands of individuals in corporate, institutional, governmental, and non-profit settings, including MWI's programs for Coca-Cola Enterprises, Bose Corporation, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She has also taught parenting education and enrichment trainings for communities on Boston’s North Shore using the Systematic Training for Effective Parenting Program® designed to help parents raise responsible, cooperative children. Diane has completed Parenting Coordinator Training for work with high-conflict families through the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, and was approved by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs as a Long Term Care Ombudsman to advocate for nursing home residents. She is also a Qualified Administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, a tool to help teams and families work together better. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and earned her J.D. cum laude from Suffolk University Law School in Boston.
 

MaryAnne Chardo Johnson is an attorney, mediator, and teacher. A cum laude graduate of Boston College, MaryAnne holds a BA in education and a JD from Southern New England School of Law. MaryAnne’s private practice focuses on non-adversarial family law and divorce and family mediation. She also provides counsel for a number of individual clients on a wide range of interpersonal and family matters. In her private practice and as a member of MWI’s Panel of Divorce and Family Mediators, MaryAnne has successfully mediated numerous disputes associated with separation, divorce, and post-divorce modifications, and has helped divorcing, divorced and never-married clients create workable, mutually satisfactory separation agreements, modifications and parenting plans. MaryAnne is the former Program Coordinator of the Probate and Family Court’s Access and Visitation Project, a court-based Parent Education Program for never-married parents. As Coordinator, MaryAnne presented the program weekly to the mostly pro se litigants in the Suffolk and Middlesex Divisions and contributed to the development of written educational materials and updates on court procedures and practices relating to custody, parenting and child support. MaryAnne’s professional experience also includes extensive freelance editing and legal research for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE). Within the last few years she has reviewed, revised and/or updated numerous chapters and supplements to many of the various MCLE practice manuals; updated entire MCLE Sourcebooks and Citators; and completed a multitude of other research and editing projects. An experienced Court Advocate, MaryAnne has also provided assistance and support to victims of domestic violence in the Plymouth Probate and Family Court as well as the District Courts in Plymouth, Hingham, and Wareham. MaryAnne currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers (MAWL) and is a member of the Justinian Law Society of Massachusetts.

For more information and to schedule a mediation session, please contact:

Joshua M. Hoch
Mediator / Director of Mediation Services

MWI
4 Faneuil Hall - Fourth Floor
Boston, MA 02109-1632

617-973-9739 x23 - phone
800-348-4888 - toll-free
617-973-9532 - fax
jhoch@mwi.org - email
www.mwi.org/divorce - web
 

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