About Rich
Rich Smukler is an attorney who has spent more than five decades working at the intersection of law, mediation and arbitration. His academic path began at Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a B.A. in English Literature in 1964. He went on to Villanova University School of Law and received his J.D. in 1970. Later, he returned to Villanova for an M.A. in English Literature, completed in 1992.
Smukler was admitted to practice in the early 1970s and served as a Special Assistant in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office in 1972. That early public service role was among his first professional steps after law school. Over the next decades he practiced as a trial attorney and then increasingly took on roles as a mediator and arbitrator. His bar memberships reflect a career that spans states and practice areas: he is active in both Pennsylvania and Florida bar organizations.
A substantial portion of Smukler’s later career has centered on alternative dispute resolution. He earned a series of court certifications from the Florida Supreme Court, including qualification as a circuit civil mediator and as a Florida arbitrator. He also is a Florida Certified Family Mediator and has served as a certified assistant mediator trainer for civil and county mediators. In the realm of financial disputes, he holds FINRA credentials as an arbitrator and mediator. He is also recognized as an American Arbitration Association neutral.
Smukler’s ADR work includes participation in residential foreclosure mediation programs and service on county ADR committees. He has been involved in Palm Beach County’s residential foreclosure mediation program and has memberships on ADR committees in Palm Beach and Broward counties. His association list also includes national organizations; he is an ABA ADR Section member and belongs to Florida-based mediator groups such as the Florida Academy of Professional Mediators and the Association of South Florida Mediators and Arbitrators.
Throughout his career he has combined courtroom experience with neutral roles that require different skills. He has trained other mediators, sat on arbitration panels, and handled family and civil matters in mediation settings. Colleagues note his long-standing presence on mediation rosters and his role as a resource for local ADR programs.
He maintains a practice under the name Rich Smukler Mediation. He is licensed in Pennsylvania and Florida and continues to serve as a mediator and arbitrator in civil, family and financial disputes, as well as providing mediator training and panel service.
