This article is aimed at helping guide mediators’ efforts to achieve real fairness and balance in practice. The author, NYU Law Professor Sarah Burns, draws from research in social psychology, linguistics and cognition to outline sources of bias and to propose strategies that a facilitator might use to effectively manage his or her own bias and that of mediation participants.

Steve Argeris is a second-year student at NYU Law School and a participant in the fall 2007 Mediation Clinic. He will be spending his summer at the Washington office of Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2001 and spent five years as a sportswriter before entering law school.

Adam Mendelowitz is a third-year student at NYU Law School and a participant in the fall 2007 Mediation Clinic. During law school, he interned with New York County Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich and assisted Professor Risa Kaufman in research for an article concerning court access for indigent civil defendants. He will be working at the firm of Heller Ehrman upon graduation. He has a BA in History and Political Science from Duke University.

Sarah Stoller is a second-year student at NYU Law School and a participant in the fall 2007 Mediation Clinic. She will be working this summer as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and received a Master's degree in Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.