MEET KIM L. KIRN
A trusted, professional mediator and arbitrator.
Kim has over three decades of legal experience in alternative dispute resolution. She has successfully mediated over 400 disputes and over 60 arbitrations.
Why Choose Kim?
As a Mediator
Kim has conducted thousands of hours of mediations and has a very high success rate in settling cases quickly and effectively. She has mediated cases in employment, real estate, commercial, construction, personal injury, civil rights and uninsured-underinsured motorists.
Kim mediated the first successful mortgage foreclosure case in Madison County, Illinois. Her background in representing both defendants and plaintiffs mades her an ideal neutral. She is available to mediate through US Arbitration and Mediation (USA&M), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Mo Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE), Illinois State Board of Education, Greater Gateway Association of Realtors (GGAR) and Realtor Association of Southwestern Illinois (RASI).
In 2015, Kim was named to the Missouri Chapter of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (NADN).
As an Arbitrator
Kim has experience in arbitrating complicated, as well as less complex cases, and in dealing with pro se parties.
Kim is available to arbitrate through: US Arbitration & Mediation (USA&M), American Arbitration Association (AAA), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Greater Gateway Association of Realtors (GGAR) and Realtor Association of Southwestern Illinois (RASI).
Background
KIM L. KIRN is a full-time mediator and ADR neutral. She mediates through US Arbitration & Mediation (US A&M), a well-known ADR provider in the Midwest.
Her successful mediations have ranged from commercial, employment, slip and fall, civil rights, construction, real estate, insurance coverage to personal injury disputes.
Kim’s background includes being a 1985 honors graduate of University of Notre Dame Law School and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of University of Missouri-Columbia. She began her law practice with Lord, Bissell and Brook, a large defense firm based in Chicago, Illinois, before joining Illinois State Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch as Associate General Counsel. In 1995 Kim was named University Legal Counsel at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) and in 2007 she began a legal practice focusing on mediations and arbitrations. For four years, she joined a sole practitioner in a Plaintiff’s employment practice and participated in numerous trials. She worked for over five years as a mediator with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Kim uses her experiences in a big firm, small sole practitioner and as in-house counsel to look beyond the immediate problem and find a workable long-term solution.
On a personal side, Kim was elected twice by the voters of Glen Carbon, Illinois to serve on the Public Library Board and she was elected by her fellow board members as Secretary for both of her terms. Kim is active in the international student program in her community and the winner of the 2004 Kimmel Leadership Award given annually to one SIUE staff member with demonstrated leadership in the community. She actively plays tennis, skis and hikes including a recent hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
My Philosophy
“My own experience as a lawyer tells me that in litigation oftentimes, everyone loses. Litigation is expensive, unbelievably slow and very public. However, alternative dispute resolution can transform the lose-lose paradigm of litigation into a win-win. The parties will be part of the final resolution, not just very interested spectators, and they are far more likely to be satisfied with the end result because they directly participated in the process. I am a specially trained mediator and have a broad range of experience so I can handle any number of kinds of cases. If you have never mediated a case, I can explain the process to you and work as a neutral to bring the others involved in your dispute to a mutually agreed upon resolution. I never give up”
– Kim L. Kirn
