Professional Biography

Rebekah Smith is the principal attorney at Seven Tree Solutions.  She graduated from the University of Maine School of Law magna cum laude.  Rebekah served for both the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit as a judicial clerk before conducting a two-year Skadden Fellowship, the only such fellowship ever granted to a University of Maine School of Law graduate, representing clients in the legislature and through impact litigation. She has extensive training in providing neutral legal services, primarily focused on labor and employment issues.  Rebekah offers and has trained other neutrals in using  the use video conference platforms to facilitate proceedings.

Since 2005, Rebekah has maintained a neutral legal practice as an arbitrator, mediator, administrative hearing officer, and  independent outside investigator, presiding over many hundreds of cases as a neutral.  In addition to private arbitrations, she has conducted arbitrations through the Maine Labor Relations Board, the American Arbitration Association Labor Arbitrator Panel, and state agencies.   She also serves as a mediator for the Maine Department of Education, the State Board of Arbitration and Conciliation,and the Maine Court system.  Through her years of mediating a range of cases, Rebekah has become experienced at facilitating agreements in high stakes and highly emotional situations. 

In 2012, Rebekah received a Flom Incubator Grant from the Skadden Fellowship Foundation to assist the Maine Human Rights Commission to create a formal mediation program.  In addition to helping the Commission develop the protocol for its current mediation program, the grant allowed Rebekah to conduct a series of mediations for individuals involved in Commission complaints.  Following the Commission’s promulgation of a rule establishing a mediation program in November 2012, Rebekah was selected as one of five mediators, to join the Commission's roster of mediators.

As an administrative hearing officer, Rebekah presides over hearings for a wide variety of state agencies, including many trade and public safety boards, including the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation (and several licensing boards affiliated with DPFR), the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, the Maine Board of Emergency Medical Services, the Maine Department of Public Safety, the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, and the Maine State Housing Authority.  She has served as a Policy Fellow at the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and  an Adjunct Professor of the University of Maine at Augusta. 

Rebekah is the previous President and current Vice President of the Board of Trustees of  the Maine Association of Mediators.  She is a member of the Board of the Maine Chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association as well as the Connecticut LERA Chapter; the National Labor and Employment Relations Association; the Maine State Bar Association and its Alternative Dispute Resolution, Labor and Employment, and Elder Law Sections; and the Knox County Bar Association.

 

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