My experience
I have been an active member of the bar for almost 30 years, and have extensive experience litigating and mediating a wide range of business disputes in federal and state courts, including intellectual property, licensing, breach of contract, commercial transactions, business torts, fraud and misrepresentation, antitrust, entertainment, insurance-related disputes (including insurer bad faith), employment, workplace, partnership-related, defamation, and personal injury.
My approach
Every business dispute is both a legal and a human problem. In my experience, the most effective and efficient way to resolve such disputes is to attend to both facets. My approach is to get to the heart of the problem, to take the pulse of what’s really going on, what’s really driving the dispute. This includes identifying, differentiating and resolving the legal, financial, psychological and emotional elements that, left in conflated form, tend to cause impasse and create obstacles to settlement. It also involves understanding who the key players are, and what their respective contributions are to the overall situation. I have found time and again that addressing head-on, rather than avoiding or treating as irrelevant, the human factors as they relate to the legal elements, greatly increases the odds not only of settlement, but a more comprehensive and durable resolution.
Ongoing relationships
Although my approach is highly effective for any kind of business dispute, it is particularly suitable where the parties have had, or want to have, on ongoing relationship with each other, where difficult people are involved, or situations that are by their nature highly emotional, such as partnership dissolutions, workplace disputes, wrongful termination, family-owned businesses, and disputes between companies that have ongoing contractual obligations with one another.
An atmosphere of trust, respect, and cooperation
My approach of getting to the heart of the matter requires the facilitation of an atmosphere of trust and respect among the participants to the mediation, the principals as well as the attorneys. I excel at getting adversaries to communicate and work together cooperatively toward a common goal, and bridging differences of style and perception. Because the process of mediation is as important as the outcome, I combine a through understanding of the relevant law with a mixture of empathy, solid preparation and attention to detail, and the encouragement of creativity and openness in the framing of possible solutions.
Timing
My approach to mediation is appropriate at any point, including an impediment in a business transaction, an internal, intra- or interdepartmental dispute, a pre-litigation conflict, or a dispute in which a complaint has already been filed.