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Biographies
    Director of ADR Programs Howard A. Herman

    Howard A. Herman has been with the Northern District since February 1997. Mr. Herman previously served as Director of ADR Programs for Contra Costa County Superior Court. He also spent four years as a settlement conference attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, ultimately serving as the co-director of that court's settlement conference program. Mr. Herman has practiced as a civil litigator with the firms of Graham & James and Kindel & Anderson in San Francisco. He is a 1983 graduate of Hastings College of the Law and a 1979 graduate, with high honors, of the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Herman currently teaches negotiation and mediation at Hastings College of the Law. He has experience as a mediator, mediation trainer, and early neutral evaluator.


    ADR Program Staff Attorney Robin W. Siefkin

    Robin W. Siefkin has been with the Northern District since January 2002. From 1997 to 2001, she was the Director of ADR Programs for Contra Costa Superior Court. She previously served as a Supervising Mediator with the Santa Barbara Community Mediation Program and as Attorney/Coordinator of the Santa Barbara Legal Aid Foundation Domestic Violence Restraining Order Clinic. Ms. Siefkin has practiced as a civil litigator and as a transactional attorney with the firms of Gordon & Rees and Horning, Janin & Harvey. She is a 1985 graduate of Hastings College of the Law and a 1978 graduate of the University of California at Davis.

    ADR Program Staff Attorney G. Daniel Bowling

    Daniel Bowling joined the ADR Program as Staff Attorney in March 2006 and has been mediating since 1986. He teaches advanced mediation in the LL.M. Program at Osgoode Hall School of Law, York University, Toronto and has taught basic and advanced negotiation at Hastings College of Law and at Howard Law School. He is a co-editor and co-author of Bringing Peace into the Room: The Personal Qualities of the Mediator and their Impact on Conflict Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2003), and co-author of Chapter 6, “The Mediation Process” inA Litigator's Guide to Effective Use of ADR in California (Cal CEB, 2005). He co-founded the first mediation organization in South Carolina, the LowCountry Mediation Network. As Executive Director of SPIDR, he managed the merger among SPIDR, AFM, and the Conflict Resolution Education Network, and served as the first CEO of ACR. He practiced law and was Public Defender in Charleston, SC and was on the founding faculty of Antioch School of Law. He graduated from Harvard Law School and has practiced yoga and meditation for almost thirty years.