Tulane SoPA’s General Legal Studies Program Presents a Discussion on Effectively Using Your Wheelhouse to Create Opportunities.

Speakers

Lisa Simpson Hoover

Lisa Simpson Hoover is Founder & Managing Member of The Law Office of Lisa Simpson Hoover, P.C. where she focuses her practice on plaintiff personal injury litigation. She leverages an insurance defense background, representing clients in first and third-party auto accident claims and managing extra-contractual litigation for State Farm Insurance Companies. She has served as State Farm’s claims litigation counsel in Florida and Illinois. Before her employment with State Farm Insurance, she was a criminal prosecutor with the State Attorney’s office in Sarasota, Florida. Hoover is licensed in five states (District of Columbia, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, and Illinois). ). She is the 2024-25 Chair of the ABA Women in Dispute Resolution (WIDR) Committee, on the American Arbitration Association (AAA) Panel of Neutrals, and certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a Circuit Civil Neutral. She is on the Mediation Registry for Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana. Hoover is married and has three daughters. She is a fitness enthusiast, classically trained pianist, published author, and freelance actor.

Tina Patterson

Ms. Tina Patterson exemplifies leveraging professional superpowers to create opportunities. As Founder and Principal of Jade Solutions LLC, a woman-owned business with more than 20 years of experience, she provides management consulting services in alternative dispute resolution and community engagement, proposal management, grants management support, project management, and training to a wide range of clients. She has specific experience in software development, intellectual property, government contracting, land use matters, hospitality, and employment contracts. She serves on panel rosters for AAA, CPR, FINRA, and the D.C. Bar Attorney-Client Arbitration Board. Ms. Patterson is an International Mediation Institute Qualified Mediator and recently completed the College of Commercial Arbitrators (CCA) Associates Program, Class 23-25.

Ms. Patterson is a Fellow with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) - one of a small group of non-lawyers to obtain this designation. She is a member of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution, the American Bar Association (ABA), the CIArb North America Branch, Arbitral Women, the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), and an auxiliary member of the National Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Section. Ms. Patterson serves as Co-Chair of the ABA Section State and Local Government Judicial and ADR Committee, is a member of the Dispute Resolution Section Council, serves on the board of the Academy of Court Appointed Neutrals, and currently serves on ACAN's strategic planning committee.

Ms. Patterson served on the CPR task force that created CPR's arbitrator disclosure guidelines published in Fall 2024. She served as a Planning Commissioner for the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission from 2017 to 2022.

Recent speaking engagements include: FedTalk on "Psychology of Conflict" (July 2025); "Justice Seen – Arbitrator Transparency and Disclosure Ethics" (Federal Bar Association, May 2025); "Arbitrator Disclosures and Conflicts of Interest – Developments" (CCA, 2025); and multiple other presentations on arbitrator ethics, AI in ADR, and dispute resolution trends.

Ms. Patterson is a graduate of Brown University, Southern Methodist University, Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law Straus Institute, and American University Key Executive Leadership Masters in Public Administration program.

Rebekah Ratliff

Global thought leader and JAMS Mediator/Arbitrator, Rebekah Ratliff, is a credentialed former insurance professional with more than 25 years of experience in commercial claims, responsible for evaluation, negotiating, and settling complex casualty claims loss matters, nationwide and internationally. In 2015, she founded Capital City Mediations, LLC, a national mediation, arbitration and consulting firm. She is the Secretary and International Relationships Liaison of the National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA). Ratliff is an active member of various legal trade associations, holding leadership positions with the National Bar Association as the 1st Vice Chair of the ADR Section and the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section’s Council. She is an adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law and is an internationally sought-after presenter, panelist, and lecturer in the insurance and legal communities. She is the recipient of numerous awards.