Florida’s Larry Watson named 2022 Distinguished Neutral of the Year
Larry Watson, left, receives the annual Distinguished Neutral of the Year Award from NADN Executive Director Darren Lee.
The National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (NADN) recently presented its annual Distinguished Neutral of the Year Award to Larry Watson, in recognition of “Lifetime Achievement in the practice of Civil Mediation.”
“We’re delighted to recognize Larry for his almost 40 years in the mediation field,” said Darren Lee, NADN’s executive director. “Most everyone at the top-tier of the commercial ADR market knows of Larry’s reputation for settling tough cases. But, in addition to being an enormously effective neutral, we applaud Larry for the thousands of hours he’s dedicated to the wider ADR community, from his pioneering work with the Florida court systems to his co-founding of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, his impact is rightly recognized at the national level.”
Graduating law school in 1969, Watson started his career as a trial lawyer with Carlton Fields, where he developed a practice with an emphasis on commercial cases. After his exposure to arbitration and special master procedures as an advocate in the mid 1980s, Watson pivoted to conflict resolution, becoming one of the first attorneys to train as a mediator, later becoming certified by the Florida Supreme Court at the inception of its mediation program in 1988. Following his certification, Watson developed a practice as a State and Federal Court Mediator, specializing in the resolution of complex, multi-party commercial cases, and in the mid-1990s, joined forces with John Upchurch and Terry White to form Upchurch Watson White & Max.
Beyond his private mediation practice, Watson also played a role during the formative years of Florida’s embrace of dispute resolution. Appointed by the chief justice, Watson became the long-standing chair of the court’s Standing Committee on Mediation & Arbitration Rules of Procedure. As chair from 1989 to 1994, Watson oversaw the creation of the statutes and procedural rules controlling the mediation process, as well as the ethical standards for the conduct of professional mediators practicing in Florida.
Watson continues to mediate cases, both in Florida and across the United States, and has previously been recognized by Florida’s Dispute Resolution Center with an Outstanding Achievement Award. In 2000, he received the Florida Academy of Professional Mediator’s Award of Merit, and in 2007, the American College of Civil Trial Mediators awarded Watson a Lifetime Achievement Award.
