Emmy Award Winning Journalist Kirstin Cole Teams Up with SSAM to Present CLE on “The Art of Telling Your Client’s Story”
April 4, 2017 – Westbury, NY – SSAM (Settlement Services Arbitration & Mediation), specialists in dispute resolution in the tristate area, is proud to announce that Emmy Award Winning WPIX Anchor/Reporter, Kirstin Cole, will be the featured speaker at an upcoming CLE course at its newly opened headquarters in Westbury, New York.
The event will focus on “The Art of Telling Your Client’s Story” from a mediation, arbitration and trial perspective. Moderated by William H. Groner, Esq, Trial Attorney and CEO for SSAM, the class will be co-presented by SSAM and the NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers and will be offered on May 2nd from 6 – 7PM. Prior to the event, SSAM will host an open house to welcome members of the NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers, as well as other industry and legal professionals.
Says CEO Groner, “We are thrilled to have an Emmy award winning journalist and master storyteller share her thoughts on how counsel can best present to and convince a mediator, arbitrator or jury. Such a skill set is the essence of great advocacy. This program is part of our ongoing initiative to elevate the art of lawyering by counsel who appear before our mediators/arbitrators. Equally important, we hope and expect that the events that we provide
to the advocacy community (plaintiff and defense together) will lay the groundwork for enhanced trust and respect amongst members of the bar, which are the cornerstones for successful dispute resolution”
The agenda for the May 2nd event will include a pre-CLE open house, taco and tequila tasting, followed by the featured CLE and a post CLE coffee and dessert hour as well as a meet and greet with the featured speaker, Kirstin Cole.
For more information about the NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers, contact the organization’s Executive Director, Michelle J. Stern, Esq. at mstern@trialacademy.org or reach Ms. Stern by phone at 518-364-4044. To join the Academy, visit them on the web at www.trialacademy.org/memberbenefits to learn more. For an upcoming calendar of events (including FREE CLE) – go to: www.trialacademy.org/CLECalendar.
For more about the SSAM offices, contact the office at 516-741-0100 or e-mail info@SSAMadr.com. Additional information on the company can also be found by visiting the website at www.SSAMadr.com
About Our Featured CLE Speaker: Kirstin Cole
Emmy Award winning Kirstin Cole has worked as a journalist and media professional for 20 years. Whether as an anchor, consumer investigative reporter or street crime correspondent—she’s made her mark in the news landscape. She can currently be seen working for the PIX11 Morning News at WPIX-TV, and has also reported and anchored for WCBS-TV, CBS News, News 12 and WLNY-TV 55 on Long Island and WSYX/WTTE-TV in Columbus, Ohio.
As a certified Mediator in Divorce and Family matters, Kirstin has added a new layer not only to her reporting, but also in the legal community. She works with legal clients ready to harness the power of media training to find their essential story and tell it effectively.
She’s also a media trainer for those who wish to bring their own narrative or that of their company to the powerful medium of television. She’s coached clients in effectively using an interview as part of their platform for furthering their business goals, helped them launch products and services by lassoing the power of the news cycle, and consulted them in the best positioning for their business to maximize television exposure. She has also hosted industrial videos for clients looking for a concise, forceful, and credible presentation.
As a journalist, Kirstin worked for WCBS-TV for 10 years as an anchor and reporter, working consumer and investigative stories as well as covering live, breaking news for the station. Kirstin has exposed scams and dangerous products and is responsible for getting thousands of dollars back to countless consumers. Frequently going undercover, she has done investigations about unsafe products and abusive consumer practices. Her reporting has spanned drunk high rise construction workers, illegal Botox, appliance repair rip-offs, nursing home abuses, child discrimination, abusive daycare and diamond buying scams.
She’s been submerged in a sinking car in a river and completed an airplane water crash course to demonstrate how to survive life or death situations. She’s reported from horseback, helicopters, an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic, police cars and ambulances, even a jail cell, all to tell compelling stories.
As a breaking news reporter, she has covered the aftermath of the attacks of 9-11, floods and tornados, the crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, and countless fires and blizzards. She is passionately involved in many charitable organizations.
She is a Board Member of the Achilles Track Club, helping disabled athletes compete in mainstream races. She’s also previously served as a board member for the New York Institute of Technology, a school that has fostered many broadcast journalism careers. She has been a supporter of Hour Children, an organization that supports incarcerated women and their families, and the Edwin Gould Services for Family and Children, helping foster children in New York to find meaningful home lives with parents. She also raises money for cancer and lymphoma research and cures through cycling long distance “century rides” in honor of friends and family members afflicted with cancers.
Kirstin has been honored for her work by many esteemed journalism associations. She’s the proud recipient of multiple Emmy Awards, as well as awards from the Associated Press, the Society of Silurians (the oldest journalism organization in theUnited States), the Society of Professional Journalists and the New York Press Club. Cole is a summa cum laude graduate of Chicago’s Loyola University with a degree in communications and a concentration in journalism. She currently resides in New York with her husband, daughter and son.
About Moderator and SSAM CEO William H. Groner
William H. Groner is Chief Executive Officer of SSAM. Prior to joining the company, Bill had over 35 years of experience in personal injury and construction law representing personal injury clients as well as insurance and surety companies. During those years Bill has participated in countless mediations and hundreds of negotiations involving settlements in excess of $1,000,000,000.
Notably, for nearly a decade, Bill co-managed the 9/11 Mass Tort representing over 10,000 first responders, construction workers, volunteers and others who were exposed to various Ground Zero toxins and contaminants during the post 9/11 clean up. Bill was a principal negotiator and architect of the resulting settlement in excess of $800,000,000.
During his career, Bill has organized or moderated speakers’ programs and lectured in various Continuing Legal Education forums on topics ranging from mediation to ethics to law firm management. From 2013 to 2015, Bill was an Adjunct Faculty member at Boston University School of Law. He has made numerous radio and TV appearances including 20/20 ABC News, CNN (Worldwide), Good Day NY, Fox, and CBS.
Bill has been repeatedly selected as a New York Super Lawyer, characterized as a ‘rating service of outstanding lawyers who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.’ Bill also enjoys the maximum rating available (AV-5.0) from Martindale-Hubbell, which denotes the “highest level of professional excellence.”
About SSAM
SSAM (Settlement Services Arbitration & Mediation) is a boutique dispute resolution firm devoted to resolving cases of all types and complexities, with the highest-level preparation, skill, service, and care. From Neutral Selection, Training, Settlement Techniques and Programs to the Physical and Cognitive Resolution Environment, our quest and commitment is to explore, reimagine and improve upon every variable that may affect the outcome and experience.