Claire Holland

Since beginning her career in 1981, attorney Claire Suzanne Holland has gained experience in a number of arenas. In 1990, Ms. Holland established her own practice, focused on employment law and complex domestic relations. With regard to the former, she litigated for plaintiffs and defendants alike, representing both individuals and corporations, the former in a variety of class actions and individual civil suits at the state and federal levels. Ms. Holland also took on complex domestic relations, child support, and custody cases. After obtaining certification as a mediator in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, and arbitrator in Georgia and Alabama, Claire Suzanne Holland began seeking new opportunities as a dispute resolution neutral. She has provided those services for private entities, court systems, and government agencies, including the Florida Department of Education. Ms. Holland has also served as mediator for employment disputes through the Social Security Administration, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In recent years, attorney Claire Suzanne Holland has expanded her work to include international legal consulting, and has traveled to areas such as Central Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as Former Soviet Union countries such as Russia and the Ukraine. She also works via the Internet. Among other projects, she has assisted the Bureau for Reconstruction and Development (BRD) in Afghanistan and consulted on a campaign election team for the presidential election in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2006. In her consulting capacity with the BRD, Ms. Holland has created training material on conflict resolution, nonviolence, and civic education. She was recognized for this service by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) as a 2004 Volunteer of the Year. While working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she provided critical insights and also assisted in the negotiation for the safe return of U.S. detainees. Ms. Holland holds a Juris Doctor from John Marshall Law School and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. She has pursued more than 300 hours of advanced mediation training and holds membership in the Association for Conflict Resolution. She is also a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders.