Mediator Backgrounds
Rachel Fishman Green
Rachel Fishman Green, Esq. is an attorney who began her practice as a divorce and family mediator in 1995. She graduated cum laude from Boston University School of Law in 1990.
She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Family & Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York where she Chairs the Ethics Committee and the Domestic Violence Task Force and, for 5 years, was the Editor-In-Chief of that organization’s newsletter, Council News. Rachel is a frequent presenter on Ethics and Domestic Violence at conferences and seminars given by the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation, and the Family & Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York. She was the keynote speaker, in 2002, at the annual conference for the Michigan Association of Court Mediators.
Rachel has also been awarded the achievement of the Advanced Practitioner Level membership in the Academy of Family Mediators, the Association for Conflict Resolution, and the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation.
Rachel is a certified mediator by “Safe Horizon’s” Brooklyn Mediation Center, and a certified Arbitrator of Matrimonial Fee Disputes for the Second Judicial District serving Kings County.
She also mediates disputes about allegations of attorney misconduct, referred to her by the Judicial Grievance Committee, Second Department.
Rachel has helped thousands of divorcing and separating couples resolve conflicts concerning all aspects of divorce, including division of homes, time with the children, dividing small businesses, fair distribution of pension assets, child support, division of health and child care expenses for children, tax aspects of divorce, how to bring new girlfriends/boyfriends into children’s lives.
To see and hear Rachel speak about mediation, click on this link:
First Wives World/Rachel Fishman Green On Mediation
Cara Raich
Cara Raich has been a mediator-lawyer with ReSolutions since 2006.
Cara began her career in Canada. She worked as a litigation associate there, and then in NYC. She began to think about mediation when it became clear to her that the adversarial system did not help people confront and overcome conflicts in their lives.
Cara has a tenacious commitment to mediation. She strongly believes that when the process is right for you, the results can be extraordinary.
“At the core, I think that a divorce or a separation is a largely a family problem with a legal component, not a legal problem with a family component. I am committed to creating an environment that feels safe enough for each person involved to be listened to, and to be heard.
“It is my experience and belief that when understanding, born of listening and being heard, happens in a meaningful way, the participants find it easier to make agreements.
“Mediation also lends some dignity to a painful and difficult process.”
Cara’s goal is to help clients create a respectful ending to a phase in their relationship with each other and to enable them to create a pathway towards a respectful future relationship – whether as co-parents and/or ex-spouses or partners. Resting on the solid foundation of being understood, clients can move forward with their lives knowing that the agreements reached in mediation were right for them.
At ReSolutions we are committed to the belief that the participants involved in the conflict are the best people to solve that conflict. We believe that divorcing or separating does not have to be an overtly hostile, adversarial process, fought in a courtroom or a law firm boardroom.
We give our clients control over their process, while at the same time providing the support they need to enable them to craft solutions specific to them which work for their unique circumstances. We want our clients to have input and control – so that they can be content with their agreements when they are signed, and into the future.
Cara completing training in facilitative mediation at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Education. She then trained with the Center for Mediation in Law in the Understanding Model of Mediation while working at ReSolutions as an apprentice.
Cara strives for excellence by continuing reflection and education. She attends support and development meetings, as well as working closely with Rachel. She regularly attends trainings about the law and about the psychological effects of divorce on families and children. She is also a trained Parenting Coordinators, to help families deal with post divorce parenting conflicts.
Cara is a member of the Board of Directors of the Family & Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York.
Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss setting up a meeting or to discuss the mediation process.
Michael J. Henry
Michael J. Henry, Esq. is an attorney who has been a mediator with Resolutions since 2007.
A 1989 graduate of Yale Law School, Michael practiced law in private firms and the public sector for ten years. He left the law to run an arts business working with families with young children.
Michael’s decision to leave the practice of law was based in part, on a perception that a strictly legalistic approach to problems and disputes often left too many important elements out of the picture. People in conflict experience a wide range of strong and important emotional, psychological, financial, social, and spiritual cross-currents. Michael felt that working to resolve a conflict as an attorney required a pretense that these other elements didn’t exist. Even when the law offered finality to a conflict, it often did not offer real resolution to the participants.
Michael searched for a more holistic and encompassing process to work with people in conflict, and re-discovered mediation. Michael took intensive mediation training, and discovered that as a mediator his legal skills and experience were complemented and balanced by his business experience and artistic training. The holistic integration of his different professional experience seemed to mirror the integrative and encompassing nature of the mediation process itself.
Michael has completed successfully the Mediation Intensive Training offered by the Center for Mediation in Law. He also has completed the training in Divorce Mediation offered by the Ackerman Institute for the Family. He continues to work with Center for Mediation in Law’s support and development practice group, and takes advanced coursework with the Center. He is a member of the Family and Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York, and the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation at which he regularly attends continuing education seminars. In addition to a J.D. from Yale Law School, Michael holds a B.A. from Oberlin College.