Court Monitor
Widely recognized for his expertise in monitoring the implementation of complex remedial decrees and court orders, Mr. González has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to secure the parties’ full compliance with judicial directives in a timely manner. His work as a court monitor is distinguished by his skillfulness in engaging with lawyers and stakeholders, whether they be private litigants, governmental officials, public agency heads, or corporate leaders. He aims to create an environment that encourages cooperation and shared purpose, and, by doing so, facilitate the oversight and implementation of court orders. His success in this regard led United States District Judge Thomas A. Wiseman, Jr., to remark that Mr. González is a “miracle worker.”
His first appointment as a judicial adjunct came less than four years after graduating from law school. The appointment required that he monitor the implementation of a multi-hundred-million-dollar remedial decree reforming public higher education in Alabama. The appointment lasted fifteen years. In the end, the parties, including the United States, presented the court with a consent dismissal. This result was repeated in Tennessee where Mr. González was appointed by the United States District Court to oversee the implementation of a vast remedial decree designed to purge the state’s collegiate system of the vestiges of segregation from the Jim Crow era. The case had lingered for more than thirty years, but Mr. González was able to secure the voluntary dismissal of the case upon the successful implementation of the remedial decree he negotiated as the court-appointed mediator.
Mr. González brings to his monitoring work a commitment to success, the creativity to resolve problem, and the integrity to be viewed by the parties as a fair broker.
Mediator
Mediation is art, not science. Every mediator has a different approach, but every approach has the same objective: resolution of the dispute. By their nature, lawsuits create highly competitive and antagonistic environments. Turning these demanding situations into opportunities for settlement is the art of mediation in its truest form. Being a mediator is a highly individualized enterprise requiring experience in an array of issues and environments as well as a keen understanding of conflict resolution and human nature. Sensitivity to the core interests at stake is essential. Identifying those interests and shaping settlements consistent with their preservation is the key to a winning outcome. The most successful meditations are those in which the parties take ownership of the settlement, and the most accomplished mediators are those who create the conditions favorable to that outcome.
Mr. González’s effectiveness as a mediator is evidenced by the hundreds of matters he has resolved over the more than two-and-a-half decades he has been mediating. Contesting litigants, federal judges, and the Department of Justice call on him to resolve a myriad of complex cases and class actions involving commercial interests, public policy, civil rights, education, ERISA, copyright, and employment issues. Persistence and focused attention on the cases entrusted to him are hallmarks of Mr. González’s work and have established him as a highly successful and in-demand mediator.
Special Master
Bringing to his duties as a special master a work ethic and temperament uniquely suited to the task, Mr. González has developed a reputation among judges and lawyers alike as an able and fair-minded judicial adjunct. In every case in which he has served as a special master, the appointing court has expanded his responsibilities beyond the scope of the initial referral and referred new matters to his attention. Whether issuing reports and recommendations, managing the implementation of remedial degrees, or facilitating the negotiations needed to resolve complex legal matters, he provides knowledgeable, just, and speedy resolution of the issues referred to his care. He has supervised the expenditure of over one-and-a-half-billion dollars in court-ordered remedial relief, and his skills at complex case management are such that in two significant cases that had endured for a generation and more, he was able to present the court with consent dismissals at the end of the oversight period.
The decision to appoint a special master means that a case is invariably complex and time-consuming for the court and the parties. Using a special master only makes sense if in so doing the efficiency with which a case is handled can be increased. Serving as a special master requires integrity, discretion, knowledge of the law, and the exercise of good judgment. It also requires that the assigned work be attended to in a manner that allows the case to move ahead in an orderly fashion. Mr. González’s many appointments as a special master, as well as the recognition of his colleagues by virtue of his selection as President of the Academy of Court of Appointed Masters, attest to the fact that he brings these qualities to bear in each and every case entrusted to his care.