The Founder's Story: From Warrior to Peacemaker

Many attorneys, fed up with the aggressive, counter-productive roles they are expected to play, have at long last found meaning as alternative dispute resolution has become a popular way of resolving issues. Now, in the role of peacemakers, we at last see our clients achieving true resolution of their legal-based problems.

For me, providing these more conciliatory services brought my first positive contribution through law. It was nearly 30 years ago that I selected law as my profession. On a deep level, I was committed to serve humanity and enhance the quality of life through law. A little over ten years later I had lost any vision of such a purpose. I had litigated a high volume of cases throughout many courts, and was considered highly successful at being one up on my opponents. My clients loved that. The intense focus and high energy level that arose from my legal commitment made me a powerhouse. In fact, one opponent called me "the best-looking pit bull" he'd ever seen!

Yet feelings of loss and depression followed my biggest trial wins. Despite an enviable victory rate, I felt unsuccessful and depleted. It was as if I perpetuated a system with little or no merit. I was deeply dissatisfied with my participation in the legal system. My entry into a client's dispute would actually invigorate it, not defuse it. Each attorney coming on board in the case had a way of fueling the conflict. By the time we got to trial, the vigor was grand and the dispute was totally out of proportion. So were its costs.

Demolition, Not Restoration

On the one hand, my clients realized they had won the battle they began years earlier. They achieved their goal. But the winning felt hollow. Getting there robbed them of valuable resources: a wealth of precious time, energy and hard-earned money. The legal arena swallows up these resources. The legal system depletes energy and money without restoring them. Restoration isn't part of our legal system, but demolition is.

Sounds a lot like war, doesn't it?

Attorney Transformed

Alternative dispute resolution came about just as I became thoroughly disenchanted with the legal system. Its timing could not have been any more perfect. I clearly saw litigation was not producing meaningful and lasting resolution for disputants. It was one avenue toward resolution, but only as a last resort. I began to work with clients in a completely different manner. Their legal problems became issues that could be examined and managed in many different ways.

My clients and I began to sit down and examine every conceivable way to resolve their disputes. We analyzed all potential solutions. Results were examined in terms of time, money, and energy. Level-headedness and common sense became important in deciding which course to take. In earlier years, I automatically directed clients through the portals of the court system. Now I found myself pointing them toward alternative methods to settle their disputes.

Empowerment Comes with Alternative Dispute Resolution

In the late eighties I became an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association to help terminate disputes on a larger scale. I have since worn the arbitrator hat far more often than the litigator helmet. Upon completing extensive training, I then became one of the first mediators in a field of law that has now grown exponentially. Since then I have facilitated or been an advocate participant in hundreds of mediations, the vast majority of which resulted in settlement. After many years as a litigation gladiator, my satisfaction from resolving disputes now tops the fulfillment charts.

Over this past 15 years, I feel like I am making a truly meaningful contribution to law - and society. As is the case for many well-intentioned lawyers, my reason for entering the profession was to assist others with legal crisis. But it is impossible to tap any humanistic meaning from the adversarial nature of litigation. My new solution-finding strategies have transformed my practice from litigation to consultation. The many lawyers and their clients disillusioned with the legal system can turn it around for themselves with ADR. It's a brand new way of law with a brand new sense of fairness.

Now, with many alternatives to litigation, clients respond with an entirely different demeanor. They are interested in looking at all possibilities and are sometimes quite enthusiastic about their range of options. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and fearful, they feel in charge and ready to meet the challenge of meaningful solution. Now, they choose to enter the doors to mediation and arbitration far more often than climbing the courthouse steps. For them, the potential burdens of the court system outweigh its benefits.

My shift to ADR and adopting a flexibility in tailoring my services to meet client needs transformed every aspect of my law practice. The level of satisfaction for my clients and myself has increased a hundred fold. ADR tools and techniques and job sharing with clients make it possible for me to offer my clients many more options as legal solutions. Legal remedies now come in assortments. I feel much more like a legal healer than a warrior - and it feels far, far better. I feel that I am at last serving my purpose as a provider of quality, humanitarian legal services.