Best Lawyers in America for Mediation
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Richard Smith, one of the founding partners of Christian & Small and a partner with its predecessor, Rives & Peterson, has been an integral member of the firm’s litigation group for his entire legal career. He served as the firm’s Managing Partner for five years. Richard’s practice focuses primarily on complex and corporate litigation for clients in the financial services, health care and construction industries, as well as corporate entities in other industries. His...
Roger Dickson, a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, concentrates his practice on litigation with an emphasis on complex commercial disputes, white collar crime, healthcare, personal injury and products liability. He has handled major civil litigation for the world's largest soft drink bottling company and has served as lead national counsel defending publicly traded consumer products companies in hundreds of pharmaceutical product liability cases. He also represents a publicly t...
Mr. Seale has 45 years of experience and represents the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, boards of education, including five as general counsel, construction companies, contractors and architects, in a variety of legal matters including labor employment/Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), business contracts, and civil rights matters. Additionally, he regularly serves as an arbitrator and mediator, representing clients in arbitration and mediation disputes. He is admitted to practice in all St...
Bruce concentrates his practice in mediation and complex commercial litigation. Having completed over 500 mediation cases, he represents plaintiffs or defendants in significant cases in both state and federal court. His practice specializes in complex business litigation, employment, commercial, and personal injury litigation.
Stewart G. Pollock is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Arbitration, Energy Law and Mediation. Stewart G., who practices law in Madison, New Jersey, has been recognized since 2005. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Stewart G. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
From the beginning, Rick’s career has focused on business law and litigation, and he brings the same intense focus and forethought to every interaction with his clients. An expert on construction law, Rick has represented contractors and other participants in the construction process in virtually all areas where construction and the law intersect, from contract negotiation and formation through the issues that arise during construction to performance and payment disputes and constructio...
I have been a lawyer for over 45 years. Most of my practice has been litigating contract, real estate, and business disputes including non-compete agreements and partnership/corporate breakups. During the last 15 years about 20% of my time is spent arbitrating and mediating disputes privately and for the American Arbitration Association (AAA). I also spent 17 years as a Nevada Supreme Court Settlement Judge. I try to negotiate or mediate a resolution for my clients, but when the other side wi...
Jeff Warren's practice focuses on Chapter 11 reorganization cases. Mr. Warren was lead bankruptcy counsel to the debtor, Celotex Corporation, in one of the largest Chapter 11 cases ever filed. He successfully argued Celotex v. Edwards before the United States Supreme Court, establishing national precedent regarding the jurisdiction of bankruptcy judges.
With many significant roles in the New York state court system, Betty Weinberg Ellerin embodies attorney excellence. She currently sits on a committee that screens and recommends candidates for gubernatorial appointment to the Court of Claims and is vice chair of the court system's Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics. Justice Weinberg Ellerin served more than 20 years as an Appellate Division jurist. She was the first woman appointed as Deputy Chief Administrative Judge of the State of New ...
Abbey Kaplan is a seasoned trial lawyer known for taking on complex cases and crafting creative strategies for tackling the most complicated legal issues in commercial litigation and business tort cases. A Founding Member of Kluger Kaplan, Abbey has extensive experience handling partnership and corporate breakups, real estate development disputes including banking and broker controversies, professional liability disputes, corporate finance issues, contract disputes and intellectual property. ...
Sharon V. Lovejoy represents clients in a wide variety of litigation matters with primary focus in commercial, real estate and business litigation. Ms. Lovejoy has been named to The Best Lawyers in America ® , "Lawyer of the Year" in Honolulu list, Appellate P ractice (2020), Mortgage Banking Foreclosure Law (2015, 2019, 2024, 2026) and Litigation-Banking & Finance (2014, 2022, 2025). Lovejoy is also recognized by The Best Lawyers in America ® (in “Appellate Law”, "Arb...
Valecia McDowell is a national thought leader in the areas of governmental and internal investigations, conduct risk management, and civil rights and racial equity assessments. Valecia is ranked in Chambers USA and Best Lawyers , included in national publications such as Bloomberg , American Banker , Corporate Compliance Insights , and Inside Counsel. Valecia was one of the ten “Innovative Legal Practitioners” identified by the London-based Financial Times in 2023 and on Forbes To...
Harold Stephens is a litigation attorney in the firm's Huntsville office. He began his practice in 1980 as an Assistant United States Attorney in Birmingham. For more than twenty years, he has handled a variety of civil litigation, both at the trial and appellate level. In his litigation practice, Harold has defended numerous products liability claims involving forklifts, chainsaws, logging equipment, medical devices, computer software and hardware, punch presses, farm equipment, electrical d...
Since joining Watkins & Eager in 1991, Walter's practice has included both federal and state court litigation in the areas of pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, medical malpractice, general product liability, and personal injury. Walter has served as lead trial counsel in numerous product liability and medical malpractice cases in both state and federal courts and has tried multiple cases to verdict. Walter chairs the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device and Alternative Dispute Re...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.