To All,

A Happy New Year to all that mark this time as one of significance. Another year
behind us and a new one ahead! I wish you all the best.

My past year has been rewarding on many fronts. I was asked to deliver the
benedictions at JFK Universities' annual graduation ceremony. What an honor!

And my focus on workplace conflict management continues to provide me with
meaningful opportunities to engage with humans in conflict. I mediated a lot of
informal workplace conflicts `in-house'. I find these mediations most gratifying
as they focus on the restoration of a productive work relationship. I also
continued to conduct corporate trainings in conflict resolution and mediation.

For some stability within the uncertainties of the economic times, I expanded my
teaching scope. I taught mediation for the first time at Golden Gate University
to a diverse group of students from around the world, all eager to be
peacemakers and to make a difference. I also taught Negotiation to law students
at U.C. Hastings and through the process revisited a lot of the theory of
negotiation, read new text books, and deepened my sense of the challenge humans'
face when they negotiate. My not so hidden agenda as regards this project is the
hope that I will one day be able to teach Negotiation to law students at my alma
mater, the University of Cape Town.

For some time now, I have been looking for a new mediation practice, to add to
my workplace mediation focus. Having started my mediation career by informally
`mediating' divorces while practicing as an attorney in Namibia, I have always
had an interest in divorce mediation. So when David D. Stein at
LiaiseDivorceSolutions, asked me to join him as a senior mediator I was excited.
I have pasted David's announcement with news of my joining below. I am looking
forward to a long and productive relationship with David.

It was Gandhi who encouraged us to be the change we wish to see in the world.
The longer I live the more I am convinced of Gandhi's wisdom. So often we become
consumed about the change we wish to see in the other. And yet, when we focus on
ourselves, and respond with conscious care, it is amazing what happens.

Here's to what the future holds,

A New Year!

John

www.johnford.com (for workplace mediation and training)

and

www.LiaiseDivorce.com (for family mediation)


Liaise Mediated Solutions, LLC
THREE BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS for 2011!!!

FIRST BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Liaise is delighted to inform our friends, colleagues, and referral sources that
John Ford, LL. B., has joined the Liaise team.

For those of you are not familiar with John Ford and his impressive body of
work: John studied law at the University of Cape Town in South Africa before
moving to Namibia where he represented survivors of human rights abuses in
addition to practicing employment and family law in the oldest and largest law
firm in the country.

John moved to California and in 1996 where he began his formal training as a
mediator. In 1999 John was commissioned by the legal assistance center of
Namibia to write a paper on the viability and applicability of divorce mediation
for Namibia. Extracts of this paper have since been re-published by the
Canadian Family Law Journal. John continues to write extensively on the subject
of conflict resolution and mediation and he is the editor for Mediate.com – the
largest internet site devoted exclusively to the subject of mediation.

John also teaches negotiation at UC Hastings School of Law and mediation to PSYD
and MFT therapy students at JFK University.
We are very pleased to announce that in addition the above John Ford is now
mediating Martial Reorganizations® and dissolutions with Liaise Mediated
Solutions LLC in downtown San Francisco.

SECOND BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Liaise Mediated Solutions has changed its name. Our new brand name is:

Liaise Divorce Solutions®

The Liaise mission has always been to "change the way Americans get divorced".
The best way to accomplish this mission is to have a brand that is easily
recognized by the consumer. Although our colleagues, customers and referral
sources are quite clear on the meaning of the word "Mediate", we have found that
just too many of the people who need our services the most are unaware of the
great benefits that mediation can bring to their particular marital situation.

Accordingly, we are adopting the new trade name Liaise Divorce Solutions®.
Please tell everybody you know.

THIRD BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Liaise divorce solutions has a totally new web site. WWW.LiaiseDivorce.Com.

Please come visit our site and let us know your thoughts and comments. Liaise
is very proud of our success rate which well into the 97th percentile. Most
importantly, our customers say the nicest things about their experience at
Liaise.

We continue to develop and finely hone a service that we call "Marital
Reorganization®". This is the creation of a mindset in the participants that
recognizes, when there are children involved, there is no such thing as divorce.
There is only, now and forever, Mother –Father and children. We help them plan
appropriately and go into the future not as a broken family, but as a
reorganized family.
It is simply amazing what the proper perception and frame of mind can do.

In the words of an enlightened being, "By our thought we make the world" Buddha.

Wishing you all very best for the coming year!