An update to my post of 2 September 2021, “Mediator Standards of Conduct Could Have Helped Here”: the mediator’s law firm has decided to withdraw from representing the one party in that case, thus removing the appearance of a conflict of interest. This means an appellate court decision on mediator conflicts of interest will have to wait for another day.
This case raises another interesting question: the guidance regarding a possible post-mediation conflict of interest applies to the mediator, but does it also apply to the mediator’s law firm? In this case, the subsequent professional relationship was between a mediation party and the mediator’s law firm, not with the mediator himself. It still smells like a conflict of interest to me, but it’s not so specified in the Mediator Standards of Conduct.