Mr. Mosten is a Certified Family Law Specialist as approved by the California State Bar and has been named as a Super Lawyer for the last two decades. While he handles high conflict matters with complex legal and financial issues, he specializes in non-litigation approaches and out of court settlements. Since he works exclusively online, he services clients throughout California.
Woody serves as both an aligned lawyer representing clients and as a neutral mediator. His focused training and background.
Background as a Neutral and Impartial Mediator
Forrest “Woody” Mosten has spent his entire career as a tireless peacemaker working for increased legal access and dispute resolution for the underserved and diverse members of our society.
He is the co-founder of Mosten Guthrie Mediation Academy for online Mediation Training which offers courses throughout the world.
Woody is in constant demand worldwide as a conference keynote speaker and expert witness on mediation. He is on the faculty at the UCLA School of Law (Mediation and Lawyer as Peacemaker) and he previously taught at Cal Western School of Law (Innovative Law Practice), University of San Diego School of Law (Legal Ethics), University of Southern California (Negotiation and Client Counseling, Hamline (Advanced Mediation and Unbundling), UNLV (Collaborative Law) and served as Director of Clinical Education at Mercer School of Law.
Woody is a founding member of the Southern California Mediation Association and was named by SCMA as Peacemaker of the Year and has twice served as keynote speaker at the SCMA Annual Conference. Woody is the recipient of the 2017 SCMA President’s Award. In 2020, SCMA presented Woody with its Inaugural Forrest S. Mosten Star Award for Innovation and Achievement in Mediation.
In 2019, Woody received a Life Career Achievement Award from the Academy of Professional Family Mediators. In 2020, APFM established the Forrest (Woody) Mosten Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Training Scholarship.
Woody was awarded the Lifetime Career Award by the New York State Mediation Association and has been recipient of the ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver Award, ABA Lifetime Legal Access Award, and the Los Angeles County Bar Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award. In 2022, he was named as an inaugural member of Who's Who in ADR by the ADR Times.
Woody is the author of eight books and numerous articles on mediation and other dispute resolution topics. In 2020, he was named Chair of the Mediate.com Task Force on Online Mediation Training, and is the co-author of the Task Force’s Final Report Online.
Since 1989, Woody has served as Chair of the International Client Consultation Competition involving 25 countries including India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, and countries from Western and Eastern Europe.
Woody can be reached here for mediation services and at www.mostenguthrie.com for mediation training. Woody’s bio is also on Wikipedia.
Background as a Collaborative Lawyer
Forrest “Woody” Mosten is a Collaborative Attorney (Certified Family Law Specialist) and mediator. After practicing law in Los Angeles since 1972, Woody now also serves clients in San Diego and Orange Counties. Woody focuses on matters involving substantial assets and high conflict, generally in an interdisciplinary team. He is a full- time peacemaker and never goes to court on any case. His practice is now 100% Online.
Woody is the author of eight books: Effectively Representing Clients in Family Mediation (with Hon. Elizabeth Potter Scully and Lara Traum, 2023) Collaborative Divorce Handbook (2009), Building a Successful Collaborative Practice (with Adam Cordover, 2018), Complete Guide to Mediation, 2nd Edition (with Hon. Elizabeth Potter Scully, 2015), Mediation Career Guide (2001), Unbundling Legal Services (2000), and Unbundled Legal Service: A Guide for Family Lawyers (with Hon. Elizabeth Potter Scully, 2017). In addition, he has authored numerous articles.
In addition to his full-time practice, Woody is recognized worldwide as a Master Trainer of Collaborative Professionals and Mediators, teaches an IACP course to train Collaborative Trainers, and teaches the following courses at UCLA School of Law (Family Law: A Non-Litigation Approach; Lawyer as Peacemaker; Mediation; and the Lawyer-Client Relationship Woody is passionate about teaching and mentoring peacemakers worldwide and facilitates several ongoing Consultation and Study Groups and has been conducting an online Collaborative Study Group with Ron Ousky starting in February 2021.
Woody has received numerous awards including Peacemaker of the Year and President’s Award (Southern California Mediation Association), Conflict Prevention Award (Los Angeles County Bar), Lifetime Service Award (New York State Council of Divorce Mediation). Lifetime Mediation Achievement Award (Academy of Professional Family Mediators), Lawyer as Problem Solver Award (ABA), the ABA Lifetime Career Award for his contributions to unbundling, mediation, and collaborative law. In 2020, The Southern California Mediation Association established the Forrest (Woody) Mosten Star Award for Excellence and Innovation in Family Mediation.
In 2020, Woody was appointed Chair of the Task Force for Online Mediation Training and he is the Chair of the International Client Consultation Competition (affiliated with the International Bar Association), which features teams of law students being assessed by a panel of interdisciplinary judges.
Helping families to collaboratively resolve conflict is Woody’s lifework. Woody and his wife, Jody, live in La Jolla where they spend time with their family (two children, their spouses and grandchildren), play golf, are involved in their community and joyously host Collaborative Professionals and other friends from throughout the world.
Business Partnerships, Employment, Probate, Real Estate, and Organization Mediation
Forrest “Woody” Mosten has been in private mediation practice since 1979 and teaches Mediation and Lawyer as Peacemaker as Adjunct Professor at the UCLA School of Law. He trains professionals in mediation from basic to advanced courses as a Co-Founder of the Mosten Guthrie Mediation Academy.
Woody is in constant demand worldwide as a conference keynote speaker and expert witness on mediation.
Woody practices mediation 100% on line and serves clients throughout the United States. He works closely with attorneys for the parties in custom designing each mediation to best meet the needs of each the parties and to keep costs to a minimum. He is known for his creative interdisciplinary approach to resolving disputes.
In addition to working with families, Woody has extensive experience in the following areas of legal disputes:
- Business and Partnerships: He works in resolving conflict when business principals and partners dissolve or merge with other entities. He also works in preventive mediations to maximize the synergies of personnel in starting or modifying business relationships.
- Employment: Woody has presided over mediations dealing with wrongful terminations, discrimination, and hostile workplace disputes. He will often bring in co-mediators and consultants from a variety of fields to meet the challenges in the mediation.
- Probate and Conservatorships: Drawing on his expertise with families, Woody works with spouses, adult children and others embroiled in conflict following the death of parent or other loved one. His protocol involves private separate meetings with all principals in a dispute and working our interim as well as long term solutions for financial and emotional issues.
- Real Estate: Woody specializes in disputes caused by co-ownership of property and other matters involving ongoing relationships between those in conflict.
- Non-Profit and Public Interest and Religious Organizations: Woody has mediated countless mediations involving community groups, churches/synagogues, and other organizations overwhelmed by conflict.
Woody is a founding member of the Southern California Mediation Association and was named by SCMA as Peacemaker of the Year and has twice served as keynote speaker at the SCMA Annual Conference and is the recipient of the 2017 SCMA President’s Award. In 2020, SCMA presented Woody with its Inaugural Forrest S. Mosten Star Award for Innovation and Achievement in Mediation.
Woody was 2009 ABA Frank Sander Co-Lecturer and awarded Lifetime Career Award by the New York State Mediation Association and has been recipient of the ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver Award, ABA Lifetime Legal Access Award, and the Los Angeles County Bar Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award. He is the founding Chair of the Beverly Hills Bar Dispute Resolution Section and has received two major awards for his work in mediation from that organization.
In 2019, Woody received a Life Career Achievement Award from the Academy of Professional Family Mediators and has extensive experience in mediating partnership disputes, real estate, workplace and employment issues for individuals, businesses, and non-profit and community organizations.
Woody is the author of eight books (two more to be published in 2024 and 2025) and numerous articles on mediation and other dispute resolution topics. In 2020, he was named Chair of the Mediate.com Task Force on Online Mediation Training.
Premarital, Post-Marital and Cohabitation Agreements
Forrest “Woody” Mosten is a Collaborative Attorney (Certified Family Law Specialist) and mediator. After practicing law in Los Angeles since 1972, Woody now also serves clients online throughout California and throughout the United States. Woody focuses on matters involving substantial assets and high conflict, often in an interdisciplinary team. He is a full- time peacemaker and never goes to court on any case.
Woody is a sub-specialist in collaborative and mediated premarital, post-marital, and cohabitation agreements. He believes that parties that fully discuss and constructively resolve financial issues prior to entering agreements pave the way for more successful and durable relationships.
In building relationship agreements, Woody is available to serve as Attorney for either party or as neutral mediator for the parties. In every role, Woody focuses on helping the parties build an agreement that works for each of their emotional, relationship, financial and legal needs and concerns. When he is mediator, each of the parties must also engage their own attorney to sign off on the agreement in order for the agreement to be valid and enforceable.
Woody has found that parties who participate in his model of building agreements have a high degree of satisfaction and success with the process that pave the way for a better life together following the signing of the valid and enforceable agreement.
Woody is the author of eight books: Effectively Representing Clients in Family Mediation (2023), Collaborative Divorce Handbook (2009), Building a Successful Collaborative Practice (with Adam Cordover, 2018), Complete Guide to Mediation, 2nd Edition (with Hon.Elizabeth Potter Scully, 2015), Mediation Career Guide (2001), Unbundling Legal Services (2000), and Unbundled Legal Service: A Guide for Family Lawyers (with Hon. Elizabeth Potter Scully, 2017). In addition, he has authored numerous articles.
In addition to his full-time practice, Woody is recognized worldwide as a Master Trainer of Collaborative Professionals and Mediators through Mosten Guthrie Online Training Academy, teaches courses to train Collaborative Trainers, and teaches the following courses at UCLA School of Law (Family Law: A Non-Litigation Approach; Lawyer as Peacemaker; Mediation; and the Lawyer-Client Relationship Woody is passionate about teaching and mentoring peacemakers worldwide and facilitates several ongoing Consultation and Study Groups and an online Collaborative Study Group with Ron Ousky, Past President of IAACP.
Woody has received numerous awards including Peacemaker of the Year and President’s Award (Southern California Mediation Association), Conflict Prevention Award (Los Angeles County Bar), Lifetime Service Award (New York State Council of Divorce Mediation). Lifetime Mediation Achievement Award (Academy of Professional Family Mediators), Lawyer as Problem Solver Award (ABA), the ABA Lifetime Career Award for his contributions to unbundling, mediation, and collaborative law. In 2020, The Southern California Mediation Association established the Forrest (Woody) Mosten Star Award for Excellence and Innovation in Family Mediation.
In 2020, Woody was appointed Chair of the Task Force for Online Mediation Training Online Mediation Training Task Force Resource Center (mediate.com) and he is the Chair of the International Client Consultation Competition (affiliated with the International Bar Association), which features teams of law students being assessed by a panel of interdisciplinary judges.
Helping families to collaboratively resolve conflict is Woody’s life’s work. Woody and his wife, Jody, live in La Jolla where they spend time with their family (two children, their spouses and grandchildren), play golf, are involved in their community and joyously host professional colleagues and other friends from throughout the world.
Professional Organizations and Awards Received
Professional Organizations
- Association of Family Law Specialists
- International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
- Collaborative Practice San Diego
- Los Angeles Collaborative Family Law Association
- Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
- Academy of Professional Family Mediators
- Southern California Mediation Association
- Collaborative Solution, Orange County (Honorary Member)
Selected Awards
- Inaugural Forrest S. Mosten Southern California Star Award for Innovation in Mediation (2020)
- Academy of Professional Family Mediators Lifetime Achievement Award (2019)
- President’s Award, Southern California Mediation Association (2018)
- New York Mediation Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2015)
- Frank Sander Co-Lecturer, 2009, American Bar Association, Dispute Resolution Section
- Lawyer as Problem Solver, 2004, American Bar Association, Dispute Resolution Section
- Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovations in Legal Access, 2004, American Bar Association Standing Committee on Delivery of Legal Services
Public Interest
Forrest (Woody) Mosten has spent his entire career as a tireless peacemaker working for increased legal access and dispute resolution for the underserved and diverse members of our society.
Woody is a professional mediator helping families, businesses, and organizations resolve disputes. He has mediated conflict involving schools, community boards. churches and synagogues, and non-profit organizations.
He is the co-founder of Mosten Guthrie Mediation Academy for online Mediation Training which offers courses throughout the world MostenGuthrie - Mediation Training, Online Training.
Woody serves clients throughout the world exclusively through Zoom. Prior to converting to an online practice, he had offices in San Diego and Los Angeles and was named an Honorary Member of the Orange County Collaborative Practice Group. Woody and his wife, Dr. Jody Mosten, live in La Jolla.
Woody is in constant demand worldwide as a conference keynote speaker and expert witness on mediation. He is on the faculty at the UCLA School of Law (Mediation and Lawyer as Peacemaker) and he previously taught at Cal Western School of Law (Innovative Law Practice), University of San Diego School of Law (Legal Ethics), University of Southern California (Client Counseling), Pepperdine Law School (Mediation) and Hamline Law School (Mediation) and other educational institutions.
In 1972, with his partners Len Jacoby and Steve Meyers, Woody opened the first private legal clinic in the United States that still is in operation 49 years later following a California Supreme Court ruling permitting an expansion of consumer information by lawyers.
Woody was Director of Clinical Education at Mercer Law School in Macon, Georgia where he traveled the Southern US recruiting black law students as Faculty Sponsor for Black Law Students Association.
Early in his career, Woody was a lawyer for the Oglala Sioux Nation following the Wounded Knee Occupation. He also served as a lawyer working with the United Farm workers and has trained Asian-America mediators to better serve their community and as ACLU Counsel in cases involving civil rights.
Woody served as Director of Consumer Protection as the Assistant Regional Director of the Federal Trade Commission. In this position, he led an investigation against real estate brokers who harassed consumer oriented brokers who tried to help consumers. This experience led 13 years later to Woody inventing Limited Scope Legal Services for which he is recognized as the “Father of Unbundled Legal Services” Unbundled legal services - Wikipedia
Woody is a founding member of the Southern California Mediation Association and was named by SCMA as Peacemaker of the Year and has twice served as keynote speaker at the SCMA Annual Conference. Woody is the recipient of the 2017 SCMA President’s Award. In 2020, SCMA presented Woody with its Inaugural Forrest S. Mosten Star Award for Innovation and Achievement in Mediation.
Woody has chaired many committees and projects in the Conflict Resolution Field. In 2008, the Association of Conflict Resolution appointed Woody to Chair its Task Force to establish a National Peacemaker Museum. He currently serves as a conflict resolution consultant and facilitator for the Burnham Center for Community Advancement in San Diego.
In 2019, Woody received a Life Career Achievement Award from the Academy of Professional Family Mediators. In 2020, APFM established the Forrest (Woody) Mosten Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Training Scholarship Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (apfmnet.org)
Woody was awarded the Lifetime Career Award by the New York State Mediation Association and has been recipient of the ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver Award, ABA Lifetime Legal Access Award, and the Los Angeles County Bar Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award.
Woody has served as consultant and trainer for the Hopi Dispute Resolution Council and has conducted Basic and Advanced Mediation trainings on the Hopi Tribal Grounds. In addition, he was named to neutral and impartial mediator for major political and public policy tribal disputes.
Woody is the author of eight books and numerous articles on mediation and other dispute resolution topics. In 2022, Woody was named as honoree of Who's Who in ADR. He has served as Editor of four special issues for the Family Court Review. In 2020, he was named Chair of the Mediate.com Task Force on Online Mediation Training, and is the co-author of the Task Force’s Final Report.
Since 1989, Woody has served as Chair of the International Client Consultation Competition involving 25 countries including India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, and countries from Western and Eastern Europe.
Woody can be reached here for mediation services and at www.mostenguthrie.com for mediation training. Woody’s bio is also on Wikipedia.
Selected Publications
Selected Publications by Forrest S. Mosten can be found here.
