Sharpen your skills and take your expertise to a new level.

Joe Manuel is a Rule 31 Listed Civil and Family Mediator. An early proponent of ADR, he received his first mediation training in 1991 from the American Arbitration Association. He became an Arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association in 1992 and has served as an Arbitrator (a private judge) in more than 75 cases. Joe was one of the Speakers at the first ADR Seminar sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association in 1994. When Tennessee created court annexed Alternative Dispute Resolution, he became a Rule 31 Listed Mediator in 1997 and completed additional training in 2008 to also become Listed as a Family Mediator.

Joe began his career in 1978 and is one of Tennessee’s most experienced civil trial lawyers. He has maintained an active trial practice in Tennessee & Georgia throughout his career. In recognition of his outstanding trial skills, he was first certified in 1995 by The National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Civil Trial Advocate and as a Civil Specialist by the Tennessee Commission on CLE & Specialization in 1996.

Joe is one of Tennessee’s most prolific writers and lecturers upon Alternative Dispute Resolution. He is the Senior Author of the Tennessee Alternative Dispute Resolution Handbook (The Harrison Co. 1997). He is the creator and Editor of the Tennessee Mediation Pocket Guide (2000). By 1999, he was creating online Continuing Legal Education Courses on Mediation & Arbitration. These courses became known as the “ADR Professor Series” and Joe became known as the “ADR Professor.” In 2016, he created the “Rule 31 Quick Finder,” a topical index to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31; Appendix A; and the Code of Professional Responsibility Canon 2.4.