Ehsan Ali
Founder & Mediator
Mediator, practicing New York lawyer, and arbitration specialist with experience in major national and international commercial disputes.
About
About Venn Mediation
A New York mediation and conflict-resolution practice helping people and organizations find the overlap where workable agreements live.
The practice
Venn Mediation was founded by Ehsan Ali and Alnoor Maherali to help people take control of resolving their own disputes. The two trained together in New York and discovered that their backgrounds, one shaped by law and arbitration, the other by diplomacy and multiparty negotiation, made them more effective together than either was alone.
That discovery became the practice’s signature. Depending on the nature of the matter, Venn may use a co-mediation model: two mediators with complementary experience, bringing multiple professional perspectives, added capacity for complex or multi-party disputes, balanced facilitation, and sensitivity to different communication styles.
The name reflects the method. In every dispute there is a region, sometimes small, usually larger than the parties believe, where both people’s needs overlap. Mediation is the disciplined search for that region.
Venn Mediation is a mediation practice, not a law firm, and does not provide legal advice.
Affiliations
As published by the practice. Names only, logos can be added where permitted.
- ADR ODR International, corporate partner; Resident Representatives in New York and the US
- New York Peace Institute, mediator roles across the team
- SIMI, Singapore International Mediation Institute accreditation (Alnoor Maherali)
- MWI, ombuds services partnership
- FamilyKind, Advisory Council (Robin Beckhard)
What we believe
The values that run the room
Self-determination
The people in the dispute own the outcome. Our job is to make their own best judgment possible, never to substitute ours.
Impartiality
We take no sides and carry no brief. Both participants should feel, at every moment, that the process belongs equally to them.
Confidentiality, honestly framed
Privacy is central to mediation, and its exact limits depend on the engagement and applicable law, so we put the terms in writing before we begin.
Calm structure
Hard conversations go better inside a deliberate process: ground rules, speaking turns, pacing, and room to think.
Practicality
Understanding matters, and so does Tuesday. We push gently toward arrangements concrete enough to live by.
Candor about fit
Mediation is not right for every matter. When it isn’t, we say so and point toward what may serve better.
The people
Meet the mediators
Alnoor Maherali
CEO & Mediator
Mediator, former diplomat, and practicing ombuds professional whose career spans conflict resolution on four continents.
Robin Beckhard
Mediator
Mediator, coach, and facilitator with three decades of experience helping people negotiate money, space, and shared lives.
Hal Gessner
Mediator
Certified mediator serving business, community, family, and estate matters, after an award-winning 35-year career in network news.
You do not need to have everything figured out.
A confidential introductory conversation can help determine whether mediation is an appropriate next step, with no obligation to continue.