CEO, BreakthroughADR | Mediator, JAMS | Author, NEGOTIATING WHILE BLACK: Be Who You Are to Get What You Want
Damali Peterman, Esq., is a distinguished ADR professional who joined JAMS in 2021. She brings over twenty years of experience as a mediator, conflict resolution trainer, ADR entrepreneur and corporate transactional lawyer in private and in-house practice to the disputes over which she presides and is highly-regarded for her use of innovative and engaging techniques designed to assist companies, institutions, nonprofits, government agencies and individuals prevent, manage, and resolve conflict.
Ms. Peterman has been active in many different areas of conflict resolution, including as a mediator, in a wide range of business and commercial, employment/Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, intellectual property, higher education, family, and housing disputes. She has worked across a broad swath of industries, including those in the banking, utilities, telecommunications, entertainment, food and beverage, and retail fields.
Prior to joining JAMS, Ms. Peterman founded Breakthrough ADR, a global conflict resolution firm that helps organizations resolve conflict and teaches people how to listen, negotiate and resolve everyday situations in the workplace and beyond. Through Breakthrough ADR, she routinely addresses acute and chronic inter- and intra-company conflict and provides conflict resolution/mediation training and coaching to thousands of individuals and companies. Prior to establishing Breakthrough ADR, she founded a law firm focusing on corporate and other business transactions. She was an assistant general counsel at Deloitte LLP and an associate at the global law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges having handled, at both institutions, corporate transactions including deal structuring and contract negotiations.
Ms. Peterman believes that, in addition to enabling positive business changes, ADR is critical to empowering positive social change. To this end, through Breakthrough ADR and community organizations, she has been privileged to train hundreds of law enforcement officers in New York City and elsewhere in ADR-based techniques aimed at de-escalating and resolving conflict without the use of force. She relishes seeing the breakthrough moments these officers routinely have as they progress through training and learn new techniques to help navigate conflict.
Ms. Peterman empowers her clients by instilling in them a sense of agency and self-determination during their disputes. She makes each person feel heard, understood, and appreciated by employing the exceptional listening and communication skills she has honed over the course of her long and distinguished career. She has a well-earned reputation as a creative problem solver. Indeed, counsel often comment on her ability to forge a path to resolution even for the most intractable of disputes.
*Graduate of another institution
