40-Hour Mediated Settlement Conference (MSC)

Sarah Corley is an attorney licensed in Georgia and California, and a mediator with more than 20 years of experience. She began her career as a lawyer specializing in litigation and employment law. In 1996, she started her own mediation practice, MediationWorks NC, and has worked as private mediator ever since. She is certified by the NC Dispute Resolution Commission in Superior Court, Family Financial and Clerk of Court mediation, and serves on the panel of mediators for federal district court and the United States Postal Service. She is a member of the NC Academy of Superior Court Mediators and the NC Association of Professional Family Mediators.

Tara Lynn Kozlowski is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission. She has been with the Commission since July of 2018. Prior to working with the Dispute Resolution Commission, Mrs. Kozlowski was a family law litigator and mediator, practicing with a small firm in Wake County, North Carolina. Mrs. Kozlowski obtained a Bachelor in Science degree in Chemistry from Indiana University, and her J.D. from The University of Toledo College of Law in 2006. She lives in Apex, North Carolina with her husband, their two daughters, and a yellow lab.

Sharon Tracey Barrett is a retired Superior Court Judge and a former Buncombe County District Court Judge. She currently serves as an Associate Judge and Justice for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and as an Emergency Superior Court Judge. Through a practice called Barrett Resolutions, Sharon now works as a mediator and arbitrator. She is a member of the North Carolina Chapter of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. She graduated cum laude from Boston College in 1983 and received her J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1986. She practiced law in Asheville for nineteen years, focusing primarily on civil litigation, until she became a judge in 2005. From 2002-2003, she was President of the Buncombe County Bar. She served for many years on the board of directors of The Mediation Center.

Frank Goldsmith operates a mediation and arbitration practice under the name Goldsmith Resolutions, based in Buncombe County. He is a graduate of Davidson College and received his J.D. with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill, following which he served as an Army captain (JAGC) during the Vietnam Era before entering civilian litigation practice. Frank became certified as a mediator in 1996. He has mediated hundreds of state and federal cases in the past 25+ years. He has consistently been named among the “Best Lawyers in America,” “Super Lawyers,” and “North Carolina Legal Elite” in the field of alternate dispute resolution. He served on the Boards of Governors of both the NC Bar Association and the NC Advocates for Justice. He was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1994.

Laura Jeffords, MPA, is the Executive Director of the Mediation Center. Laura has over 18 years of experience as a professional mediator and mediation trainer. She leads the Mediation Center’s DRC-certified training program for District Criminal Court Mediation. She has trained hundreds of community members to mediate criminal court, family, prison re-entry, and neighborhood conflict. She works with district courts in Western North Carolina to ensure that people who access the criminal courts to address family, neighborhood, and community conflict have the opportunity to use mediation instead. Laura has a particular interest in mediating organizational conflicts, conflicts where violence has occurred, and conflicts rooted in issues of race and gender. She collaborates with community mediation colleagues from around the country to lead seminars that encourage mediators to think more deeply about issues of race and bias in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution. She is certified in the Inclusive Mediation model, which is a radically nonjudgmental approach to mediation that prioritizes self-determination, violence prevention, and party relationships. Laura is also a certified Medicaid Appeals mediator.

Fred Barbour has lived and practiced law in Asheville for more than 36 years. For the first two thirds of his practice, he spent most of his time in the courtroom in hearings and trials, or outside the courtroom investigating cases and preparing them for trial. Since then, he has focused on mediation. His experience gives him perspective in counseling clients to make choices likely to lead to favorable resolution of their conflicts and helps him serve more effectively as a mediator guiding discussions about settlement. While each case and each mediation is different, his extensive experience informs his interactions with clients and attorneys and increases the odds of successful settlements.