DANA CURTIS is a pioneer and leader in the Bay Area alternative dispute resolution field. She was among the first attorneys in the country to devote her career exclusively to mediation, beginning her full-time practice in 1991.  Since serving for four years as a Circuit Mediator on staff with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Ms. Curtis has maintained her Sausalito-based practice, Dana Curtis Mediation.  The Los Angeles Daily Journal has recognized her as one of the 50 "Best Neutrals" in California.

In recent years, Ms. Curtis has devoted a significant portion of her mediation practice to helping parties to resolve elder-related issues.  She has mediated a wide range of disputes involving elders and their families, from non-controversial meetings in which family members wish to have respectful conversations and make decisions that are in the best interest of the older person, to highly emotional, hotly contested legal disputes involving elder abuse claims, trusts, estates and conservatorships.  

Prior to becoming a mediator, Ms. Curtis served as law clerk to Associate Justice Edward A. Panelli of the California Supreme Court and practiced commercial and employment litigation with McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen (now Bingham McCutchen) in San Francisco and San Jose. Before becoming a lawyer, Ms. Curtis was a community college and a nationally recognized high school teacher in Idaho.

Ms. Curtis is also a respected mediation teacher.  She has designed and facilitated hundreds of programs for law schools, businesses, court panels, private groups, bar associations and professional conferences throughout the United States and internationally.  For a calendar of Ms. Curtis’ upcoming trainings, see the Training Calendar.

In 2008, Ms. Curtis founded Elder Mediation Group to provide mediation training and conflict services to older adults and adult families.  To view Ms. Curtis’ current teaching schedule visit the Training Calendar. To view a list of programs and courses she has taught over the years, see Ms. Curtis’ complete resume. 

Ms. Curtis has written widely on the subject of mediation.  She and her co-author Carolyn Rosenbatt are currently writing Elder Mediation: A Guide for Practicing Mediators, which will be published by the American Bar Association in 2010.  It will be one of the first books to be published on the subject of elder mediation.  For a list of Ms. Curtis’ other publications, see Publications.

Ms. Curtis has also been active in the mediation community, serving for ten years as Co-Chair of the Mediation Committee of the Bar Association of San Francisco; as a member of the California State Bar ADR Committee; and as a member of the board of directors of the California Dispute Resolution Institute.  She is a charter member of the San Francisco Mediation Society and belongs to numerous professional organizations, where she is frequently invited to present programs.  Ms. Curtis serves on numerous Bay Area court and national mediation panels, including the Employment Mediation Panel of Boston Law Collaborative. 
For a complete list of panels on which Ms. Curtis serves, see her resume. 

Ms. Curtis is co-founder and a member of the Board of Directors of RockRose Institute, a Bay Area non-profit dedicated to solving conflict through dialogue and deliberation, and serves as a consulting member of the San Francisco Zen Center’s Ethics and Reconciliation Council.

When she is not working, Ms. Curtis enjoys being on her Sausalito houseboat with her husband Daniel Bowling, who also is a mediator, hiking in Marin and traveling, especially to visit her three children and four granddaughters.

View Ms. Curtis’ complete resume.