Approach to Mediation
Thorough preparation and informed adaptability.
Mr. Watts’s mediation practice focuses upon complex business, commercial, real estate, construction and high-conflict disputes, including matters involving business dissolution, succession, customer relationships, ownership and control, and partition. He also has extensive experience mediating personal-injury matters and multiparty disputes ranging from routine claims to multimillion-dollar proceedings.
Before the mediation, he engages with counsel and party representatives to understand the claims, supporting facts, applicable law and the personal or commercial dynamics affecting the dispute. This advance work helps identify potential barriers, clarify expectations and improve the prospects for a productive negotiation when the parties convene.
No single method is appropriate for every dispute. During the mediation, Mr. Watts adapts the process to the parties, the issues and the circumstances as they develop. He works to ensure that each participant is heard, that assumptions are carefully examined and that the parties have the information and perspective needed to make informed decisions.
The outcome remains with the parties. The mediator’s role is to create the conditions in which candid evaluation, meaningful negotiation and self-determined resolution can occur.
Business and Commercial Disputes
Mr. Watts mediates disputes arising from business relationships, privately held enterprises and commercial transactions. Matters have involved partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations, as well as ownership, management and control disputes.
Issues have included breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, dissolution, succession, customer lists, accounting, valuation, fraud, misrepresentation, secured transactions, employment agreements and private purchase and sale agreements.
His experience as counsel in complex commercial litigation—including the dissolution of business entities and the prosecution and defense of substantial claims—provides a practical understanding of the risks, costs and consequences confronting parties in business disputes.
Real Estate
Real estate matters have included residential and commercial purchase agreements, commercial leases, quiet title actions, easement and boundary disputes, adverse possession, encroachments and partition actions among co-owners.
Commercial lease disputes have involved triple-net expense allocations, property conditions, fraudulent misrepresentation, concealment and failure to disclose material facts. Other matters have concerned agency duties, title, valuation, damages, rescission and specific performance.
Construction
Construction matters have included custom homes, pedestal and post-tension construction, swimming-pool failures, concrete masonry units, concrete flatwork and disputes among drywall, masonry, electrical, HVAC and other trades.
Issues have involved workmanship, scope of work and change orders, project termination, coordination among trades, expert testimony and delay claims involving critical-path analysis, concurrent delay and ownership of float. Other matters have included labor disruptions, classification disputes, force majeure defenses, Miller Act bond claims, prompt-payment issues, soil compaction and subsidence.
Mr. Watts has worked with disputes involving owners, architects, general contractors, subcontractors and material suppliers. This breadth of experience assists in identifying not only the legal issues, but also the operational and economic considerations that frequently drive construction conflicts.
Consumer and Financial Matters
Consumer matters have included automobile and product warranties, alleged defects, repair histories, manufacturer repurchase obligations and claims under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and California’s unfair-competition laws.
Financial and technology-related matters have included disputes involving banks, card issuers, electronic funds transfers, unauthorized transactions, account takeovers, cryptocurrency and digital-asset platforms.
Multiparty and Personal-Injury Disputes
Mr. Watts has extensive experience resolving personal-injury claims and managing mediations involving multiple parties, insurers, attorneys, experts and competing demands upon limited resources.
In these matters, careful preparation and process design are particularly important. Identifying the participants, coverage issues, allocation questions and practical impediments before the session allows the mediation to remain focused upon the decisions necessary for resolution.
Mediation Philosophy
More than carrying numbers between rooms.
Effective mediation requires preparation, patience, careful listening and an understanding of what the dispute means to each participant.
Mr. Watts approaches mediation with calm determination. He seeks to understand the case as the parties understand it, test positions without diminishing the people who hold them, and maintain forward movement when negotiations become difficult. The objective is not to compel an agreement, but to give the parties the clearest possible opportunity to reach one.