Qualifications, Experience, and Guidelines
Mark’s experience as a mediator extends to commercial matters including energy, securities, contract, fraud, fiduciary duty, licensing, franchise, intellectual property, insurance coverage, professional liability, enforcement, and partnership disputes. He has also mediated personal injury, product liability, and toxic tort disputes. In 1990 he trained with five other Houston trial lawyers in the first group of local lawyers to learn and then to help popularize today’s most commonly-utilized form of mediation. Since that time, Mark has mediated several hundred cases. Mark has also attended numerous mediation workshops, seminars, and CLE presentations, including the Harvard Negotiation Workshop, from which he received its certification in 1994.
Mark also gained valuable perspective on the effective, efficient, and proper use of mediation through his experience as a frequent advocate in mediation during his more than 40 years as an active trial lawyer. Based upon that experience, the conduct of Mark’s mediations is today guided by four main principles:
- First, there is no substitute for the highest level of preparation by the neutral. With the agreement of counsel, Mark exercises more than routine diligence to understand the case at hand well before the mediation session, commonly meeting with counsel in person or communicating through telephonic or e-mail correspondence.
- Mark routinely requests substantially more information and context than the common form of mediation statement may provide. He encourages counsel to submit any and all documentary or deposition discovery that is believed to bear importantly upon the case, along with copies of pending motions, expert reports, pertinent agreements, and any other materials that counsel believe will assist him in credibly addressing the parties’ claims and defenses at the mediation.
- Mark’s more than 40 years of trial experience brings value in helping counsel and their clients achieve successful and satisfactory mediations. He does not presume that this experience positions him to speak with greater authority than counsel in the case about the possible outcomes at trial, but firmly believes that an informed third-party perspective on the courtroom alternatives to settlement—when invited—is useful to both counsel and client.
- Mark believes that the mediation process should be structured and conducted in a manner agreed upon by the parties and their counsel, largely unrestricted by the mediator’s dictates or views. He acts in mediation as as a confidential evaluator and brings to the mediation session—and to any required follow-up communications—informed and relevant questions, insights, and experience that may help guide the parties toward a mutually acceptable settlement.
Fees
Fee for a one-day, two-party, mediation is $3,500 per party. This includes all aspects of preparation time (including pre-mediation conferences, whether by telephone or in-person) and an unlimited, one-day mediation session. Multiple parties represented by a single lawyer are treated as a single party for purposes of calculating the fee. For mediations conducted outside of Houston, additional charges are limited to the out-of-pocket costs of transportation and lodging.