With more than twenty-five years of experience, I have focused my practice on three areas: mediation, law, and ethics. Each has claimed my passion. Each provides significant client and public service. Each matches my expertise.

     The mediation practice arose as a response to changes in and observations about the legal system: the rising costs of litigation diminished the people's right of access to the courts; the increasingly vicious, protracted nature of litigation has brought unhealthy emotional consequences to the parties; and the actual parties to a dispute generally can create reasonable solutions to their problems once they claim ownership of the problem and value closure of the dispute. With very few matters actually tried by a court, the vast majority of disputes do settle. Mediation, a guided negotiation, allows the virtually inevitable settlement to occur sooner in the litigation process, avoiding the time, money, and emotional costs of extended litigation.

     Despite the virtues of mediation there remains a need for traditional law services. Wills still need to be drawn. Incapacitated adults need the intervention of a guardian. Persons accused of crimes need to count on a lawyer to vigorously defend them. A divorced parent may need the assistance of a court to ensure compliance with visitation orders. And persons catastrophically injured by a negligent driver or an impaired medical professional may need vindication by a jury when mediation fails due to uncrossable divides between the parties or want of good faith in the mediation process. In these and other circumstances I offer my lawyering skills.

     The ethics component draws on my experience as a chief disciplinary counsel, professor of professional responsibility, ethics consultant, and counsel for lawyers accused of violating the Rules of Professional Conduct. Whether the need is confidential consultation about an ethical issue, the defense of a bar complaint, or testimony about the application of the conduct rules, I am available to assist you.