Mediation & Early Neutral Evaluation Services - Christian Bagin, Esquire
A Different Kind of Resolution
Employment disputes take a toll—on time, money, energy, and morale. For more than two decades, Christian Bagin has helped clients navigate some of the most difficult conflicts in workplaces across Western Pennsylvania. Now, drawing on that experience, as well as his volunteer experience mediating employment disputes for servicemembers and their employers and landlord-tenant disputes, he offers private mediation and early neutral evaluation (ENE) services to help parties resolve employment and other disputes more efficiently, more affordably, and more durably than litigation alone can achieve.
Why Choose Christian Bagin as Your Neutral?
Deep employment law expertise.
Since 2000, Mr. Bagin’s practice has been exclusively employment-related. He has litigated employment discrimination claims before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the Pennsylvania Civil Service Commission, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, and in Pennsylvania and federal courts—including the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He understands the law, the agencies, and the litigation realities that shape what parties can realistically expect.
Both sides of the employment relationship.
Mr. Bagin has represented plaintiffs and employers in employment discrimination claims and has real-world work experience as a manager in the world of NYC importer/wholesalers: supervising employees, attending trade shows, planning production and overseeing logistics, and being responsible for a budget. Of course, he is also an employer himself. This dual perspective allows him to understand—and credibly engage—both the employee’s and the employer’s point of view.
Formal mediation training.
Mr. Bagin has completed formal mediation training, including:
*40-Hour Basic Mediation Training, The Conflict Lab, Pittsburgh, PA— fulfills the formal training requirements of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania Alternative Dispute Resolution program.
*Professional Mediation — Employment, Cornell University’s Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, one of the nation’s leading institutions for labor and employment dispute resolution training.
Over a decade of practical mediation experience.
Since 2013, Mr. Bagin has served as a certified Ombudsman for the Pennsylvania Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), providing mediation services to service members and employers in disputes arising under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). That work has given him more than a decade of sustained, real-world experience helping parties in genuine conflict find workable solutions. In addition, Mr. Bagin has served as a mediator for landlord-tenant matters in both the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas mediation program, as well as for Just Mediation Pittsburgh.
A trusted community presence.
Mr. Bagin has also served as Chair and EEOC Liaison of the Western Pennsylvania Employment Lawyers Association (WPELA), an affiliate of the National employment Lawyers Association, and has lectured on employment law throughout his career. Both plaintiff-side and defense-side attorneys throughout the region know him and his work.
Mediation Services
Mediation is a confidential, voluntary process in which a neutral facilitator helps the parties reach a mutually acceptable resolution. Unlike litigation or arbitration, mediation preserves the parties’ control over the outcome. Mr. Bagin offers private mediation services for employment-related matters, including:
Mediation with Mr. Bagin is available to parties with or without counsel, and can be arranged at any stage of a dispute—before litigation is filed, during the litigation process, or as a court-connected ADR option.
Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE)
Early Neutral Evaluation is an ADR process in which the parties make informal presentations to an experienced, impartial attorney with subject matter expertise, who then provides a candid, non-binding evaluation of the case—its strengths, its weaknesses, its likely value, and its prospects. ENE focuses on the evidence and the law, not just the parties’ positions.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania requires parties in most civil cases to engage in some form of ADR, and ENE is one of the three available options. ENE is particularly well-suited to employment cases, where an evaluator’s deep substantive knowledge of employment law can provide parties with a realistic, credible independent assessment that may not emerge until much later in expensive litigation.
Mr. Bagin is available to serve as an ENE neutral in employment matters both through court-connected ADR programs in the Western District of Pennsylvania and by private agreement of the parties at any stage of a dispute.
Fees
Mr. Bagin’s fee for mediation and early neutral evaluation services is $500.00 per hour for all time spent on a matter following engagement. There is no charge for inquiries concerning suitability, availability, and conflict checks.
Mediations may be conducted in person or remotely.
Schedule a Session
To inquire about retaining Mr. Bagin as a mediator or early neutral evaluator, please contact:
Christian Bagin, Esquire
Wienand & Bagin
960 Penn Avenue, Suite 1001
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 281-1110
