MICHAEL WOLF C.V.

Michael Wolf is not like most mediators.  He helps clients solve critical problems and make important decisions rather than simply settle disputes.  He helps clients move forward rather than just draw closure to the past. 

Organizations retain Michael to resolve the most challenging collective bargaining matters, EEO complaints, multi-party negotiations, institutional grievances, appeals of arbitration awards, negotiability disputes, high-value workplace matters, and some of the most complex, sensitive legal disputes.  He has mediated and facilitated more than 1,000 labor-management cases and 100’s of other cases.

Organizations retain Michael to teach and facilitate traditional and interest-based negotiations, strategic planning, labor-management committees/forums/ partnerships, organizational needs assessments, and associated action planning initiatives. Michael delivers expert training and conflict coaching for mediators, leaders, and organizational representatives who are responsible for repairing and growing constructive workplace relationships. Michael has trained 1,000’s of advocates and neutrals.

MICHAEL’S EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Federal Labor Relations Authority – Director, Collaboration and ADR Office; concurrently the lead Unfair Labor Practice Settlement Official in the Office of Administrative Law Judges (2013-2018, 2021-2025); Senior Dispute Resolution Specialist (2010 to 2013). In 2018, also the EEO Director and led the agency’s strategic planning process.

ADR Practitioner in private practice (2018 – 2021).

U.S. Air Force General Counsel’s Office of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution in the Pentagon (2018 – 2019) – Senior Labor Relations/EEO Consultant (full time contractor).

National Mediation Board – Assoc. Director of former Secretary of Labor W.J. Usery's Center for the Workplace at Georgia State University (special assignment 2003 – 2005); and Counsel for Dispute Resolution Technology (2005 – 2010).

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service – Commissioner & Federal Mediator (1993 – 2003), Director of Mediation Technology Services and Special Assistant to the Director (1999 – 2003).

National Treasury Employees Union (1982 – 1993) – In-house counsel.

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Post Office and Civil Service (1982) – Congressional staffer.

Pepperdine University, Catholic University of America, and University of Baltimore – Adjunct faculty teaching graduate students.

J.D. Washington University School of Law in St. Louis
B.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison

Want more than a summary of Michael’s employment history? Read on!

FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY (FLRA)

From 2010 to 2018 and from 2021 to 2025, Michael led the FLRA Collaboration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Office (CADRO). Beginning in 2013, he also led the Settlement Judge Program in the FLRA Office of Administrative Law Judges. Michael and his team helped employers and unions constructively manage and resolve more than 900 cases that often were complex, significant, sensitive, and controversial. Cases most often arose as disputes over collective bargaining language, appeals of arbitration awards, impasses during collective bargaining negotiations, or seemingly intractable ULP complaints. More than simply settle cases, Michael and his team did helped parties improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency, improve quality of employee work life, and support constructive working relationships.

Michael and his team also delivered facilitation, training, and advisory services to help employers and unions improve problem-solving relationships and grow constructive workplace cultures. Internally at the FLRA, Michael and his team grew ADR culture by serving as conflict coaches, trainers, mentors, mediators, and facilitators.

In 2018, Michael led a team of 40 FLRA employees to develop the FLRA's multi-year strategic plan. He concurrently served as the agency’s EEO Director.

Michael received the FLRA Chairman’s Certificate of Appreciation, multiple Special Act Awards, his colleagues’ Peer Superlative Award, and annual performance awards.

PRIVATE PRACTIONER

During a failed attempt at “retirement” from 2018 to 2021, Michael spent the first year as the Senior Labor Relations/EEO Consultant to the Air Force General Counsel’s Office of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (NDR) in the Pentagon. Michael was a full-time executive coach, consultant, project developer, strategic planning coordinator, and professional development instructor. Michael was the NDR Director’s principle internal advisor; he represented the NDR Office in several matters at the Pentagon and with other elements of DoD; and he led development of NDR projects.  Michael served as an instructor concerning negotiation and dispute resolution matters at the Air Force Judge Advocate General's School at Maxwell AFB, AL; at the Army Judge Advocate General's School in Charlottesville, VA; and twice at Joint Base Andrews, VA.

In addition to his role at the Pentagon, Michael mediated a nationwide class action pending before the EEOC; served as the keynote speaker at the DoD’s annual ADR and Conflict Management Symposium; served as a seminar leader for Washington University School of Law; and served as a trainer for:

  • State of Massachusetts hearing officers and labor mediators;

  • The annual ABA Dispute Resolution Conference;

  • An ABA Dispute Resolution Section webinar;

  • The Steering Committee of the federal Interagency ADR Working Group; and

  • The Association for Conflict Resolution annual conference.

NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD; W.J. USERY CENTER

From 2003 to 2010, Michael was the NMB Counsel for Dispute Resolution Technology. He spent the first 18 months on special assignment as Associate Director of the late Secretary of Labor W.J. Usery’s Center for the Workplace at Georgia State University. The Usery Center studied cooperative labor-management relations and served as a national resource for leaders seeking assistance to resolve workplace disputes. Michael worked with Mr. Usery and the Center Director to develop and deliver ADR consulting, training, and dispute resolution services.

Upon returning from the Usery Center assignment, Michael offered legal guidance to the NMB, helped improve the way that the NMB used technology in dispute resolution processes, and exercised leadership in applying innovative technology to the ways that the NMB managed labor-management relations in the rail and airline industries. He also facilitated leadership-level dispute resolution processes among rail, airline, and union representatives.

FEDERAL MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION SERVICE (FMCS)

From 1993 to 2003, Michael was an FMCS Commissioner and Federal Mediator. In 1999, Michael became the FMCS Director of Mediation Technology Services and a Special Assistant to the FMCS Director. Highlights included:

  • Mediating hundreds of private sector, federal sector, and other public sector labor contracts, grievances, EEO matters, unfair labor practice cases, and other workplace disputes. 

  • Training workplace leaders how to improve workplace culture, use integrative bargaining strategies, and engage in effective dispute resolution processes.

  • Helping workplace leaders engage in successful problem solving and decision-making.

  • Leading the FMCS team that successfully designed, developed, and implemented “TAGS,” the FMCS technology-supported dispute resolution service.

  • Developing and delivering large scale workplace engagements, sometimes including hundreds of participants.

  • Special assignments such as training Ireland’s labor mediators how to integrate leading edge technology into its mediation and training work; and helping train Panamanians to manage Canal labor relations so the U.S. could successfully return the Panama Canal to local control.

  • Consulting engagements, such as hosting a visiting Saudi Arabian judge to help initiate court-annexed ADR procedures in the Middle East; the U.S. Air Force General Counsel’s Office to help develop agency-wide ADR programs; and the Commanding General at Fort Hood (now called Fort Cavazos) to help improve LMR at the U.S. Army’s 3rd largest domestic installation. 

  • Founding chairperson of the Alamo Federal Executive Board Shared Neutrals Consortium. Led the team that developed, trained, and managed the mediator cadre throughout Central/South Texas.

  • Earning the coveted Director’s Award of Distinction, five Performance Awards, and a Service Award.

CONGRESSIONAL STAFFER; NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION

In the immediate wake of the 1981 PATCO strike, Michael spent a brief time on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives committee responsible for federal sector labor relations matters. Michael then spent more than a decade on the national office staff of the National Treasury Employees Union. While National Counsel, Michael managed the Austin TX-based attorneys, organizers, and administrative staff who performed the Union’s representation and organizing work for more than 23,000 bargaining unit employees throughout the seven-state southwest region. As Assistant Counsel, he represented the Union and its bargaining unit members in virtually every type of labor relations matter, including grievances and arbitrations, chief spokesperson in collective bargaining, duty of fair representation matters, unfair labor practice charges, unit clarification petitions, negotiability determinations, DOL investigations, and appeals to administrative agencies and the D.C. Circuit.

UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTOR

Michael is an adjunct lecturer teaching labor-management relations in the graduate program of the Metropolitan School of Professional Studies at Catholic University of America. Previously, he was adjunct faculty at Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, where he co-taught law school courses concerning organized labor, collective bargaining, and dispute resolution. At the University of Baltimore, Michael designed and taught the graduate course in Online Dispute Resolution.

Michael has been a guest instructor at Harvard's Kennedy School, Cornell University ILR School, George Washington University, University of Syracuse Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, University of Texas Business School, North Texas State University Business School, Sullivan University, and Rutgers University Department of Public Policy.

LEADERSHIP ROLES

Examples of prior roles include:

  • American Bar Assn. (ABA), Labor & Employment Law Section, Federal Sector Committee Co-Chair.

  • ABA Labor & Employment Law Section, ADR Committee Fellow.

  • ABA Labor & Employment Law Section, Technology Committee Midyear Conference Planning Team.

  • Assoc. for Conflict Resolution, Workplace/Ombuds Section Co-Chair and member of two national committees.

  • Federal Interagency ADR Working Group Steering Committee, Technology Subcommittee Chairperson.

  • ABA Young Lawyers Division, ADR Committee Chairperson and Liaison to ABA Dispute Resolution Committee.

  • Assoc. of Labor Relations Agencies Webmaster (Canada and U.S.).

  • Assn. for Conflict Resolution, Philadelphia Chapter President and Board of Directors Member.

  • New Jersey State Bar Assn., Dispute Resolution Section Board of Directors Member.

  • New Jersey Assn. of Professional Mediators, Board of Directors Member.

  • Texas Mediator Credentialing Assn., Founding Board of Directors Member.

  • Alamo Federal Executive Board, Shared Neutrals Consortium Founding Chairperson.

  • Supreme Court of Texas, ADR Advisory Committee Appointee.

  • Travis County (Texas) Dispute Resolution Center Board of Directors Member.

  • State Bar of Texas, ADR Committee, Subcommittee Chairperson.

EDUCATION

  • J.D., Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, MO.

  • B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  • Received and delivered thousands of hours of specialized training in mediation, communication skills, labor law, labor-management relations, conflict management, negotiations, leadership, organizational development, and other matters.

PUBLICATIONS

  • Wolf, "ODR and Negotiation," Chapter 14 of Online Dispute Resolution - Theory and Practice (Second Edition), Eleven International Publishing, Jun 2021.

  • Wolf, “Collaborative Technology Improves Access to Justice,” Chapter 38 of Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America (Samuel Estreicher & Joy Radice eds., Cambridge University Press (ISBN: 9781107070103), Apr 2016).

  • Wolf, “Online Collaboration Tools Can Improve Workplace ADR,” Chapter 4 of Cutting-Edge Advances in Resolving Workplace Disputes, at 77 (CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, 2014).

  • Wolf, “Collaborative Technology Improves Access to Justice,” 15 NYU J. of Legis & Public Policy 759 (2012).

  • Wolf, “Online Systems Improving Access to Justice,” ACResolution (Nov 2010). 

  • Wolf, “Achieve More for Your Clients with ADR,” The CPA Journal (Apr 2005)

  • Wolf et al., “Essential Collaborative Technology Tools for the 21st Century,” 2 Pepp. Disp. Resol. L.J. 321 (2002).

  • Wolf, Court-Annexed Arbitration: Working with the Judiciary (Chicago, IL: Amer. Bar Assn., 1990).

  • Wolf, Settlement Week (Chicago, IL: Amer. Bar Assn., 1990).

  • Wolf, “Involve Your Bar in ADR,” The Affiliate (Chicago IL: Amer. Bar Assn., Oct 1988).