Arline Kardasis

Director of Mediation Services

Arline Kardasis is an expert mediator with a specialty in managing family and family enterprise conflict. She is co-author, with Continuity Managing Partner Blair Trippe and Partner Rikk Larsen of Mom Always Liked You Best: A Guide for Resolving Family Feuds, Inheritance Battles and Eldercare Crises. She also collaborated with Rikk Larsen on the article, “When Aging Issues Lead to Family Conflict” for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

Arline is a highly sought-after facilitator for family meetings, whether an annual retreat or topic-focused meetings, such as one to discuss a shared family vacation home. Bringing her depth of knowledge about conflict management and understanding of the unique dynamics in family business systems, Arline guides families through processes that lead to clarity, alignment, and meaningful dialogue.

She has been an invited speaker at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the Sino-U.S. Judicial Mediation Exchange Program, the American Bar Association, the (International) Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, among many others.

Arline is a lead trainer for Family Enterprise Canada in their Family Enterprise Advisor Certification Program.  She has served as a mentor and coach for professional mediators in the Massachusetts courts and is a former Vice President of the Board of Directors of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution. She was a founding co-chair of ACR’s Elder Mediation Section and served on the Public Awareness Subcommittee for the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. Arline has been a mediation and negotiation coach for numerous nationally recognized institutions, including: Stanford University Law School, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Hastings School of Law at the University of California, and Boston College School of Law.

Arline earned an MAT, with honors, from Simmons College and a BA in Political Science and Urban Studies from Boston University.

Professional Certifications:
Program on Negotiation; Harvard Law School