Mari J. Frank is a California licensed attorney/ mediator since 1985. She’s also a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit and Family Court Mediator. She’s the author of six books and dozens of published articles. She is a professional corporate leadership trainer, negotiations coach, privacy consultant and radio/podcast host in private practice  in Florida and California.

 

She has worked in the Orange County California District Attorney's Office, practiced insurance defense law, and has had a general civil law practice. She has successfully resolved thousands of disputes as a neutral since 1985. Prior to becoming an attorney, Ms. Frank was a university professor, educational consultant, school district administrator, and elected school board member. She received her BA from the University of Wisconsin (Madison), her Master’s Degree from Hofstra University, and Law Degree from Western State University College of Law in California. She received her post law school negotiation and mediation certification from Mc George School of Law, Harvard Law School, and Pepperdine Law School.

 

Ms. Frank was the founding President of the Orange County Chapter of theSociety for Professionals in Dispute Resolution-Orange County. She served for three years as founding Chair of the State Bar of California Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the Legal Services Section, and she is a California State Bar certified trainer of Continuing  Legal Education of attorneys.

 

Mari presently serves as a qualified member of the Civil Mediation Panel for the Orange County, California Superior Court. She also serves as a mediator for the Mediation Fee Disputes for the Orange County California Bar Association. She has taught hundreds of law students as a law professor, and thousands of attorneys as a certified trainer for Continuing Legal Education for the Bar. For many years she taught negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution at the University of California, Irvine, and was an adjunct professor at Western State University School of law for eight years. Ms. Frank served on the Mediation Advisory Board for the American Arbitration Association. She was President of the Orange County Society for Professionals in Dispute Resolution, Chair of the first ADR Court Diversion Program of the Orange County Bar Association, and served on the first Board of the Southern California Mediation Association.

 

Ms. Frank was Chair of the Advisory Board of the Orange County Mediation Conference   and served on the Mediation Conference Committee Executive Board. For many years, she served on the National Advisory Board of Divorce Magazine, and has written dozens of articles for magazine. Presently Mari serves as an advisor to the Law Practice Management and Technology Section of the California Lawyers' Association.

 

As a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Court and Family Court Mediator, Mari is a member of the Hillsborough County Bar Association and is a panel member for various Florida County courts through the Florida Dispute Resolution Center. She is licensed by the State Bar of California as a lawyer, and is a member of the Orange County California Bar Association. Mari serves on the Executive Committee of Law Practice Management & Technology Section of the California Lawyers association and is a certified Trainer for the State Bar of California.

 

Mari has authored five books including a textbook Negotiation Breakthroughs, and many published articles/booklets dealing with conflict resolution. Beginning in 2005 she was the radio host of Prescriptions for Healing Conflict and Privacy Piracy on KUCI 88.9 FM in Irvine airing on Monday mornings streaming on www.kuci.org.

 

 Mari is a faculty member of  the American Institute of Mediation and EPIC educational seminars.  She consults and mediates for corporations, and also presents conflict transformational training programs for lawyers, governmental agencies, and business professionals. She has taught myriad participants to utilize effective solution techniques to transform adversity into  greater opportunities for collaboration.  Mari successfully  empowers her clients to reach, mutually satisfying  agreements and enhanced, superior relationships.

 

Ms. Frank is a also a Certified Privacy Expert (Certified Information Privacy Professional) and provides consulting, training, and expert testimony on privacy issues nationwide.  As a privacy expert, Ms. Frank has authored the Complete Idiot's Guide to Recovering from Identity Theft; the Identity Theft Survival Kit, From Victim to Victor; Safeguard Your Identity and co-Authored Privacy Piracy with Beth Givens, Former Director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Ms. Frank has testified several times before the U.S. Senate and the California Legislature, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Social Security Administration. She gave a speech on financial privacy at the White House in 1999 with former President Bill Clinton that was televised on C-Span.

 

As a supporter of law enforcement, she served as a Sheriff Reserve Professional Services Responder in Orange County, California from 2001 until 2021. She was a member of the advisory board of the California Office of Privacy Protection, The Privacy Task Force for the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the Consumer Federation of America (DC), the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and for 12 years, she was an advisory to the Identity Theft Resource Center. She continues to be a distinguished fellow for the Ponemon Institute, a respected research institute dedicated to promoting responsible information management, and she has been a member of the 3 M Corporation Visual Privacy Council.

 

As a media commentator, she has appeared on  Dateline, NBC, 48 Hours, Montel, CNN, ABC Nightly News Investigative Reports, Fox News,  the  and dozens of other national television shows. She has been featured in the New York Times, LA Times, U.S. News and World Report, Your Money Magazine, Parade Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and dozens more national publications. Additionally, Ms. Frank hosted her own PBS television special entitled " Protecting Yourself in the Information Age" which aired nationally.  Her published  books and the video of her show were given as pledge gifts when viewers donated to PBS.

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Ms. Frank uses a variety of "solutioneering" techniques as a mediator, coach/advisor, privacy expert, professor, radio host, and professional trainer. Her expertise in privacy and  conflict transformation make her a unique mediator for
technology and other information age disputes as well as various types of civil law cases.