Advancing Resolution in Probate Matters
Since its launch in late 2024, MCLA’s Probate Mediation Program has continued to demonstrate the growing demand for specialized ADR in probate matters.
The program has received hundreds of matters likely to benefit from the ADR process, reflecting strong engagement from the courts and parties seeking an efficient alternative to prolonged litigation.
MCLA mediators have been able to successfully mediate the majority of the cases that have chosen to engage with the nonprofit per the judge’s recommendation at an exclusive reduced rate offered to SCLAC litigants.
The program is supported by an experienced panel of probate mediators who have collectively handled hundreds of matters involving trusts, estates, conservatorships, guardianships, and other high-conflict family disputes.
As the program continues to mature, these results underscore MCLA’s ability to provide courts and families with an effective forum for resolving complex probate disputes while reducing the time, cost, and emotional strain often associated with litigation.
Thinking Big, But Starting Small
Thank you SCMA!
Earlier this June, SCMA hosted and celebrated awardees at the annual 2026 Civil and Employment Mediation Institute held at Loyola Law School.
The gathering brought together a range of professionals for an informative and productive full Saturday at the LMU campus for speakers and presentations with field thought leaders.
Attendees heard from a cohesive curated panel of speakers lecturing on a range of topics from legal to business and theory to maximize efficiency in civil and employment mediation.
MCLA was proud to be a Gold Sponsor for the event in support of the advancement of mediation and access to resolution.
Congratulations to SCMA leadership on a successful event and to the honorees. Special thanks to MCLA mediator and SCMA Board member Anthony Khoury!
Bennett Root
Honored to feature MCLA Executive Director, Bennett Root, as July’s Mediator Spotlight. Ben wears many hats as an attorney, mediator, business strategist, travel writer, photographer, and speaker.
Over his 40+ year career as an advocate, a negotiator, and a counsellor at law in California, Ben has refined the skills and special techniques that make him a master at resolution of disputes: business and commercial disputes, labor and employment disputes, personal, public interest, and community disputes. He is trained, certified, experienced, and highly skilled.
He has developed and overseen implementation of dispute resolution processes for employers who wanted to maintain a positive work environment for their employees. In addition to his work as an attorney, Ben has served as a corporate CEO, as a Chief Legal Officer, and as a member of a business development and patent development teams.
Ben is a husband, father, and participant in the life of the community. He is an avid photographer and a travel writer. Ben lives in the Los Angeles metro area and travels extensively for business and pleasure.
Ben is a photographer and writer of over 20 years of traveling throughout the US and frequently in Europe and Asia. He has served as Executive Vice President for the North American Travel Journalist Association (NATJA) and Staff Writer/Photographer for Travel World International Magazine.
Myer Sankary, 1965
via the Harvard Law School Bulletin
“Myer Sankary and Bennett Root ’70 provide mediation services for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, with over 500 judicial officers and 32 courtrooms, in their work at the Mediation Center of Los Angeles.
Sankary, MCLA president, has been practicing law in LA for 60 years, 25 of them as a mediator, and formed the center as a nonprofit in 2013 and donated 10 years of service pro bono. Root, MCLA executive director, joined him in 2023 and applied a business model to make the center sustainable.
Stephen Marcus ’70 and Jim Cameron ’77 are also mediators there.”
Myer Sankary, 1965
“My class of 1965 had outstanding graduates…”
“Daniel Weinstein was a beloved federal judge in San Francisco and one of the founding members of JAMS and started a foundation for mediation programs around the world. Elizabeth Holtzman was a congress person from New York. Bruce Babbitt was the Arizona attorney general. Elizabeth Hanford Dole married Bob Dole and was a cabinet member. She was Class Secretary and I was class treasurer…
Many of us became law professors, judges, and partners in major law firms.
I experienced a lot of history in those days.”
– Myer Sankary
Jim Cameron, 1977
Now Mediating Family Matters: Anthony Khoury
Anthony Khoury is now available for Family Law matters
As a part of MCLA, Anthony has mediated nearly 200 cases with MCLA alone, serving litigants of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County at an affordable reduced rate available exclusively through MCLA’s partnership with the court for civil cases as well as family law matters with the expansion of said program.
“Anthony Khoury was great! I had high hopes for the mediator selected, and they were met. My clients really felt they lucked out getting assigned Anthony as the mediator.”
-Tracy Wells,
WELLS LAW PLLC