Resolve serious disputes before they become lawsuits.
Professional mediation and structured conflict resolution for business leaders, professionals, and families involved in shared enterprises.
Structured resolution where the stakes are significant.
Business & Partnership Disputes
Founder conflicts, ownership disagreements, internal disputes, and pre-litigation business matters.
Family, Estate & Legacy Matters
Inheritance disputes, trustee conflicts, family business issues, and complex financial disagreements.
Strategic Transition & High-Stakes Negotiations
Succession planning, ownership restructuring, buyouts, and multi-party negotiations.
Executive Mediation Consulting & Training
Conflict-resolution frameworks and leadership training to prevent disputes from escalating.
With over 30 years facilitating complex disputes, Mediation First provides structure when the stakes are significant.
- U.S. Department of Justice mediation consultant
- Helped build mediation programs in 14 states & Ireland
- Author, Resolving Conflict Once and For All
- ~98% resolution rate when both parties engage in good faith
Litigation is expensive. It is slow. It often damages relationships beyond repair.
Mediation offers a disciplined alternative. When appropriate, it allows the parties—not the courts—to determine the outcome.
- Confidential proceedings
- Faster resolution
- Controlled costs
- Durable agreements
- Preserved relationships
Resolution, in the parties' own words.
Mark helped two of us untangle a partnership we'd spent fifteen years building. We walked in barely speaking and left with a signed agreement—and our friendship intact.
After our father passed, the estate threatened to split the family for good. Mark gave us a structure—and a way to be heard. We settled in a single day.
Our succession had stalled for months. In one focused session, Mark moved us from deadlock to a clear buyout structure everyone could accept.
I expected a negotiation. What I got was clarity. Mark is calm, exacting, and completely neutral—exactly what a hard conversation needs.
Names are withheld to preserve the confidentiality that is central to mediation.
In Person
Louisville, Kentucky and Tampa Bay, Florida. Travel available nationwide and internationally.
Virtual
Conducted via Zoom anywhere in the English-speaking world.
Engagement
Offered on an hourly or flat-fee basis depending on the complexity and structure of the matter.
Most disputes do not begin in court. They arrive there after communication fails.
By then, positions have hardened, costs have escalated, and relationships have fractured. Mediation provides a structured, confidential environment to resolve serious matters before that point.
Before filing a lawsuit, consider resolving it first.