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The key to pursuing rewarding work as an ADR professional: Journey from the bottom 1% of India to top 1% of America
by Govind Lakshman

trained in
• Learn and practice neutral work across contexts: seek opportunities to be trainedin
university, court, and community programs. and practice in a variety of fields, as • 1971 Mechanical Engineering graduate of University
programs,
each will broaden both your skills. Attend most every training and conference you Visvesvaraya College of Engineering.
can; to offset costs, offer to volunteer in organizing the event, seek scholarships or • Came to USA in 1971 and completed a B.S. degree in
reduced registration fees.
Industrial management.

• Build relationships within the field: get to know fellow dispute resolution • Living in Chicago since 1973.
practitioners through local ADR organizations as well as trainings and conferences; • Started own Manufacturing Company as a one man
while few may provide you work, many will help you to learn where opportunities operation in 1978.
may arise. Find a Mentor who you can shadow and co-mediate with.
Born in a poor family in Bangalore, (probably in the bottom 1% of the population) my
• Recognize your market: be thoughtful to consider to whom you seek to provide uneducated parents, especially my mother was determined to educate all her children,
dispute resolution skills, and how to approach them.Consider your unique strengths so that the children would have a better standard of living than they did. So, we were
them, Consider
and skills. motivated to succeed in life. My older brother was a Mechanical Engineering graduate
from UVCE, 1963 batch and was my mentor. As I was interested in building and creating
• Consider ADR related roles: conflict coaching, and Organizational Ombudsman things, I followed his footsteps in choosing Mechanical Engineering. I always dreamt of
roles are emerging as areas of practice sought after by many businesses. There owning a factory.
are separate qualifications for both, but they share similar core competencies as When I was in UVCE, between 1966 and 1971, practical classes such as Workshop
required for mediation. practice, carpentry, foundry, Machine Drawing, Mechanical Lab were always my favorite

subjects. Soon after my final exams I was able to come to USA with my brother’s help.
• Align your work with your values: all of the above are facilitated greatly by a Instead of pursuing a Masters degree in Engineering, I chose to do my undergraduate
commitment to constructive, non-violent, respectful, non-adversarial approaches degree in Industrial management, since I was planning to start my own manufacturing
to solving difficult issues. company. Having a well defined, realistic & attainable goal is very important to succeed
in life.
In short, having a successful practice as a dispute resolution practitioner has less to
do with being a lawyer or a retired judge, and far more to do with being a consummate While in UVCE, we used to get some afternoons off, and we used to go to a theater
professional with the passion and commitment to doing a good job and caring about in Chickpet for movies. One such movie that I saw there was a movie “The Graduate”
serving the needs of the client. The skills and competencies required to be a strong starring Dustin Hoffman as the new Graduate, and his family friend Mr. McGuire gives
dispute resolution professional are not unique to those with a law degree. It is the him an advice: “ one word-PLASTICS, there is a great future in Plastics”.
application of these competencies in creative ways that is critical for the success of all This one word stuck in my mind and made a lot of sense in choosing my career in
ADR professionals as this field continues to evolve. Those who have been successful in plastics. Everyone I knew were working in metals. But, plastics was where opportunities
forging a new pathare those who are willing to take risks, think outside the box, and were. After my first year of college in West Virginia, I went to Chicago to look for a
identify business needs and opportunities where our expertise can be useful. summer job, since there were no job opportunities in West Virginia. My goal was to find
a summer job preferably in the plastics field. An ad in a local paper was for a machinist
in a plastics manufacturing company. But this Company happened to be in a suburb with
no public transportation. As I was walking door to door in an industrial area looking for
a job, I ran across a friend in a car, and I asked him if he could drive me to this Plastics
Company where the machinist’s job was. He agreed, and I called the company, the job
was still open, and we were on our way. When we got there the secretary said the job
is not open. I told her that I had just called and have come a long way to apply for the

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