Mary Pawlenty takes job with mediation firm

The First Lady, a former judge, will join a Minnesota firm that provides dispute-resolution services.

By Mark Brunswick, Star Tribune

Last update: September 4, 2007 - 8:37 PM

First Lady Mary Pawlenty has a new job as a mediator and arbitrator. Pawlenty, who served as a District Court judge for 12 years, will join Gilbert Mediation Center, a dispute-resolution company, the governor's office announced Tuesday.

Pawlenty will join a group of retired judges and former Gov. Wendell Anderson in the company, which was founded by Jim Gilbert, a former associate justice of the state Supreme Court.

Pawlenty resigned her judgeship in February to take a job as general counsel for another dispute-resolution company, the National Arbitration Forum, a Minnesota firm that has been criticized by consumer-protection advocates over an alleged bias against consumers in mediating debt-collection disputes. The company, one of the largest dispute-resolution companies in the country, denies the allegations.

One of the company's founders, Edward C. Anderson, is a frequent GOP contributor, including to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's 2006 reelection campaign.

Mary Pawlenty left that job after barely a month, saying through a spokesman only that it "was not a good fit."

Marshall Tanick, a Minneapolis attorney and frequent critic of the National Arbitration Forum, said Pawlenty's new association is "a fairly potent one because of its roster of individuals that provides a fairly high quality of arbitration services."

Her position as a governor's wife may enter decisions about whether companies will use her as an arbitrator, Tanick said. In arbitration, parties forgo traditional court structure to obtain private rulings on civil disputes that often remain confidential.

"People will want to select her for who she is and not select her because of who she is," he said.

David Allen Larson, a professor at Hamline University Law School who teaches classes in labor law and mediation, said, "The twist is that her husband is governor. The question is whether you can decide in an impartial fashion. Is there any relationship, financial or personal, that gives you a stake in the outcome? It's unlikely there would be a lot of situations where she would have a financial interest in the outcome. But the question is, is there somehow going to be some personal interest in the outcome? That's pretty amorphous, particularly outcomes that could further the career of her husband."

Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636

Mark Brunswick • mbrunswick@startribune.com