Why OnPoint Mediation?

Throughout his career, Stephen Daniel Ramos has been a student of the dynamics of resolving conflict between parties whose relationships are characterized by an imbalance of power -- the classic David and Goliath paradigm.  Steve has also been intrigued by the complex dance of multi-party disputes, in which parties who are seeming allies find their collective negotiating strength undermined by internecine disputes and by the misalignment of their respective core interests.  A keen understanding of the nuances of interplay between such combatants can often uncover hidden paths and opportunities to resolve their conflicts.

Steve has extensive experience and education in mediation, law, and alternative dispute resolution.  Steve was privileged to pursue a successful law career at the highly-regarded boutique law firm of Berger & Montague, P.C., where he specialized in multimillion dollar class action and complex litigation in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, corporate breach of fiduciary duty, securities fraud, and antitrust. 

In his pursuit of professional excellence, Steve has had the extraordinary experience of studying at some of the most prestigious educational institutions in the country, including the National Judicial College, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Villanova University School of Law, and Middlebury College. 

Steve successfully completed the intensive course of study in Civil Mediation at the prestigious National Judicial College.  The NJC offers this program as part of its specialized curriculum promoting judicial excellence in keeping with its mission:   "advancing justice through judicial education."  The course qualifies as a requirement for the Certificate in Judicial Development, Dispute Resolution Skills program as well as other special NJC programs.  Steve was extremely honored to be the only graduate in his class who was not a judge, an extraordinarily rare achievement.  The experience was especially enriching because Steve's class was comprised not only of judges serving in federal, state, local, and tribal courts throughout the United States, but also jurists representing Brazil, the Marshall Islands, Nigeria, and Portugal -- adding the invaluable benefit of cross-cultural international perspectives to the panoply of viewpoints and experiences represented by the diverse group of participants.

The theoretical, analytical, and pragmatic skills that Steve honed during his study of Advanced Negotiation Strategy at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program have proven to be invaluable for identifying optimized solutions during mediation.  This superb curriculum focuses on interest based negotiation strategies in a multitude of business, legal, and international contexts.  It was especially enlightening on the process of discerning and exploiting various parties' real interests in order to maximize the value of negotiated outcomes for all of the parties.  The course involved numerous role-play exercises and real-life case studies.  Steve's colleagues were high-level corporate executives from companies throughout the country and all over the world, including Argentina, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.  Once again, Steve was unique in being the only person who did not attend on a corporate scholarship, but rather was admitted on the strength of the negotiation skills developed during his law career.  The negotiation strategies explored in this outstanding course stand in stark contrast to the zero sum models typically practiced in legal disputes and are phenomenally powerful tools for resolving conflicts in mediation.

Steve's highly successful career in law inspired his interest in, and dedication to, mediation.  Steve's career at Berger & Montague was incredibly gratifying and Steve feels fortunate to have practiced law at a super high-caliber firm in an environment filled with well-respected lawyers who are at the top of their field.  Complex and class action litigation involving multimillion dollar damage exposures often settle before trial because of the extreme risks of litigation.  Alternative dispute resolution is a key means for settling risky litigation, especially given the complex power dynamics and divergent interests between multiple parties.  Mediation offers a comprehensive forum to address all parties' interests to achieve a binding global settlement.  Having litigated and settled many such cases, Steve became a devotee of mediation because it is a faster, more efficient, more flexible, more comprehensive, and more creative way to solve problems than litigation.

Steve studied law at the highly respected Villanova University School of Law.  He was especially proud to have been selected to serve on the Law Review by his peers based on his performance in an extremely rigorous legal writing competition.   At Villanova Steve honed the disciplined analytic thinking, cogent writing, and clear oral communication that are the hallmark of successful attorneys as well as effective mediators.

Steve credits the superlative quality of his education at Middlebury College, certainly one of the premier liberal arts colleges in the country, with shaping and enhancing his critical thinking, boundless curiosity, deliberative analysis, careful listening, powerful communication, and sense of purpose. The incredible impact of Steve's Middlebury experience persists even today in his view of the world and his humble place in it. 

Always learning, Steve is passionate about continuing education and the pursuit of professional excellence via Advanced Mediation Seminars and other opportunities to gain new insights and enhance old ideas.