About Judge J. Michael Harrison

J. Michael (Mike) Harrison is a graduate of Oberlin College in economics (1966) and the University of Michigan Law School (1970).  He was an attorney for IBM and for the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) before becoming an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) at the PSC in 1976.  He retired in December 2005, and has concentrated on providing mediation services and developing a private practice in alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

Judge Harrison has been extensively trained and heavily involved in mediation and other forms of ADR for more than twelve years.  As an ALJ, he was trained in mediation of multi-party business and public policy disputes at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, JAMS Endispute in Boston, Massachusetts, and CDR Associates in Boulder, Colorado.  For the PSC’s Office of Administrative Hearings and Alternative Dispute Resolution (OHADR), he conducted mediations and facilitations in multi-party cases involving such matters as rates, affiliate transactions, and generation facility certification.  He also facilitated the first major interconnection agreement in New York State between AT&T and New York Telephone Company, under the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1995.

Judge Harrison was certified by and has conducted mediations for more than eight years for Mediation Matters, the Unified Court System Community Dispute Resolution Center (CDRC) in Troy, Albany, and Saratoga Springs, NY. These cases involved such matters as community, neighborhood, landlord-tenant, service contract, parent-child and custody-visitation disputes. In early 2006, he was employed in the Saratoga Springs office of Mediation Matters as a program coordinator for Saratoga, Warren and Washington Counties. He remains active with Mediation Matters as a mediator and in mediator training and evaluation.

As an ALJ, Judge Harrison conducted evidentiary hearings and evaluated complex technical records involving such areas as finance, economics, engineering, rate design, environmental protection, and administrative and regulatory law.  His work involved the preparation of detailed recommended decisions for the PSC in numerous major rate cases, involving all of New York’s largest major investor-owned utilities and telecommunication companies.  A primary focus during the 1970s and 1980s was on cases involving New York Telephone Company (now a part of Verizon) and AT&T.  The issues resolved in rate cases included revenue requirements, the reasonable return on investment, rate design, corporate structure, service quality, and consumer rights.  He also presided over investigations into the development of competition in telecommunications, the 1984 AT&T divestiture, and the merger between Bell Atlantic and NYNEX. 

During his last ten years as an ALJ, Judge Harrison helped develop the hearing process for the certification of major electric generating facilities in New York, under Article X of the New York Public Service Law.  Working with ALJs from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), he conducted hearings and presented recommended decisions to the New York State Siting Board in several Article X cases, including the first Article X application, the proposed Athens Generating Plant in Greene County.       

Judge Harrison is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), the New York State Dispute Resolution Association (NYSDRA), its Government Affairs Committee, and the New York State Bar Association. He is also a Silver Award-winning member and Past President of the Albany Chapter of Torch International.