Mediator and Attorney in Arlington, Virginia
Ellice (Lisa) Halpern launched Little Falls Mediation in early 2015 so that she could help private clients who approached her to mediate issues related to marriage, separation and divorce, as well as business and community matters. To date, she has mediated over 1600 private and court-referred cases, face to face and online.

Awards
Little Falls Mediation is Arlington Magazine's Best of Arlington 2022, 2020, and 2018  winner for Best Mediator, as well as winner of Arlington Sun Gazette's Best of the Best for 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2016. See Arlington Magazine's January/February 2018 Best Mediator interview with Ellice for the Best of Arlington issue at www.arlingtonmagazine.com/listings/best-of-arlington-2018/little-falls-mediation/. 

Law Professor
Ellice was Adjunct Professor of Law at the George Mason University (GMU) Antonin Scalia Law School  in Arlington, Virginia and taught for eight semesters, from 2017 through 2021. She created and taught an experiential Alternative Dispute Resolution class each fall that included exploration of negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and collaborative law. She also created and taught an experiential Mediation class each spring.   

Presentations
  • Ellice spoke about ADR to students of Intro to Law at American University as guest speaker in April of 2022 and December of 2022, as well as December of 2021.
  • She spoke to members of the Philadelphia Bar Association's ADR Committee of the Family Law Section in September of 2022. The topic was ADR Practice Problems -- A Reflective Practice Meeting for Managing Challenging Cases.
  • She spoke about ADR to students of American Legal Culture at American University as guest speaker in class in April of 2021 and November of 2020.
  • In December of 2020, she spoke about "Alternative Dispute Resolution" to RLI Professionals who received continuing professional education credits for this ADR training program.
  • She spoke about "Resolving Business and Family Disputes" to alumni of the Washington College of Law at American University in a webinar in September of 2020.
  • She co-hosted a webinar on pandemic relationships in June, 2020 and presented a talk on "Five Financial Tips When You Are Facing Divorce".
  • She was chosen to present a talk on  "Alternative Dispute Resolution: Prepare For, Prevent, And Resolve Business Disputes" in March, 2020 to the Awesome Women Entrepreneur (AWE) Summit  at Marymount University's Ballston Center in Arlington, Virginia.
  • She presented "Negotiation and Mediation" at  GMU's Scalia Law School in July of 2019 and also in September of 2019 to visiting delegations from China organized by the Hubei Provincial Supreme People's Court. 
  • She presented "Managing Emotions in Mediation" at the Virginia Mediation Network Fall 2017 conference at the University of Richmond School of Law.
  • She presented a talk on "Mediation and Negotiation" to the Leadership Arlington Class of 2017 at the Virginia Tech Research Center in Arlington. 

​Education and Training
Ellice is a graduate of Cornell University and Georgetown University Law Center and is licensed to practice law in the state of Maryland. She completed her general mediator training and family mediator training with Northern Virginia Mediation Service and has been certified by the Supreme Court of Virginia as a mediator since 2010. Ellice participates in continuing mediator education and training each year as required by the Supreme Court of Virginia for recertification.

Organizations
She is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Maryland State Bar Association, the Academy of Professional Family Mediators,  Arlington Women Entrepreneurs, Mothers of North Arlington Business Entrepreneur Network, and Women Who Mean Business. 

D.C. Courts
Ellice mediated court referred community cases in the Small Claims Division of Multi-Door Dispute Resolution at D.C. Superior Court from 2011 through 2020. She has mediated numerous cases involving a variety of disputes, such as disagreements between family members, neighbors, landlords and tenants, employees and employers, and contractors and homeowners. She has also mediated civil, banking, accident, and personal injury matters, among other cases.

She  mediated court referred family cases in the Family Mediation Program at Multi-Door Dispute Resolution in Washington, D.C from 2015 through 2019. She  mediated cases involving requests for temporary restraining orders in the Judge-in-Chambers Program at Multi-Door from 2016 through 2019.

Past Experience
​Ellice has also worked (1) as a consultant to a coalition of for-profit HMOs, (2) as Washington Counsel to the American Medical Association, (3) as Minority Counsel to the late U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) on the Federal Services, Post Office, and Civil Service Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, and (4) as an attorney and special assistant at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

And...
She grew up in Buffalo, N.Y. and is a longtime Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres fan. She is known to friends and family by her nickname Lisa. She is married to her kindergarten classmate, a fellow Buffalonian. and together they have five children.  She loves reading, hiking, and visiting national parks and beautiful places.