Edward J. Henning Atlanta attorney Edward J. Henning, a pioneer of alternative dispute resolution in the Southeast, died Tuesday, April 6, 2010. He was 80.

Henning, the founder of Henning Mediation & Arbitration Service Inc., was also a founding partner of the Atlanta litigation firm Henning, Chambers & Mabry. He graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1954 and practiced law in Atlanta for more than 40 years.

"People consider him the bedrock or the grandfather of civil mediation in the Atlanta area and, probably, the state," said former partner Emory Speer Mabry III, now with Mabry & McClelland.

"He was very innovative, had high ethics, was highly professional and a very fine trial lawyer," added Mabry. "He was also farsighted."

Mabry said that Henning began mediating disputes while the two were law partners "because he was a trial lawyer, and he saw that going down to the courthouse did not necessarily solve the problem. ... [That] when you go to court, the judge and jury don't know anything about the case ... and may or may not have the expertise to solve the problem in a way that's to the best interest of all parties concerned."

Mabry said that Henning promoted mediation as a less costly and more immediate alternative to litigation. "Litigation is very costly," he said. "And you don't get instant results once the lawsuit starts."

Henning's personality, Mabry observed, was one that fostered mediation. "He was very congenial. He could get along with people. That was his secret in mediation. ... He always said, 'I understand what you've said, but have you considered this?' He would talk to people ... in a way that was non-controversial but highly successful in getting people to see what was a good solution."

Ann Clanton, the marketing director at Henning Mediation, said that Henning used to say that going to trial and going to court "is not about truth and justice. It's about how a judge and a jury sees it, and they call it. You have nothing to say about the outcome."

Henning, she said, "thought if he could give people a say-so, which mediation does, help them negotiate, facilitate ... he could help them understand what an outcome could be, and they would work out a settlement."

Henning first began mediating divorce cases in the 1950s and, later, made formal mediation an outgrowth of his law practice, Clanton said.

Richard H. Colley, president of Henning Mediation, said that when Henning first began mediating cases, "It was quite foreign to the legal profession. ... He was somewhat of a visionary. He was always thinking there was a better way to do things."

Henning also "grew to dislike the adversarial part of the litigation process, and, in particular, the impact the adversarial relationship had on the parties," Colley continued. "Mediation certainly offered a better way to settle a case without the process becoming a battle. ... Ed didn't believe that there was any dispute, domestic or civil, that couldn't be resolved through mediation. There wasn't anything that people couldn't sit down and understand each other's positions and eventually reach a settlement without putting it in the hands of 12 people who didn't know you and wouldn't care once they left the room."

Colley said that Henning used to tell him that "he wanted to offer everything that the court system didn't offer. He wanted to be exactly the opposite. He wanted a warm, comfortable environment ... where people could be comfortable all day. He wanted an approachable, understanding mediator, not a judge and jury people didn't know and couldn't approach."

"Ed is truly one of the kindest people I've ever met," Colley said. "He was kind to a fault. ... He treated every one of his employees like family for all the years I've known him."

Atlanta attorney Terrence Lee Croft of King & Croft, who worked for 15 years as one of Henning's mediators and considers Henning a mentor, said that when Henning first began mediating, alternative dispute resolution was so poorly understood that "some lawyers took exception to it, saying, 'Oh, you can't represent both sides.' Ed made it very clear that he wasn't representing either side."

Initially, many of the state's judges also took issue with the concept as if mediations were somehow "stealing business from the courthouse," Croft explained. Now, he said, "Almost every judge in Georgia mandates that litigants try mediation."

Calling Henning "an apostle" for alternative dispute resolution, Croft said Henning "proselytized the concept. He spoke to judges. He spoke to lawyers. He served as a living example and model by mediating successfully ... . Even though he's not there to call the shots any more, he put the ship in motion. It is sailing vigorously across the sea."

Survivors include Henning's wife, Helen Phillips Henning; his son, David Edward Henning and daughter in-law, Joyce Elaine Henning; and four grandchildren.

He was also the brother in-law of Milton, Martine, Wayne Phillips, all of Colquitt, and Don Phillips of Blakely.