My name is Steve Nelson, I've been practicing law over 30 years. My focus has mostly been in the area of construction litigation, construction contracts, and commercial litigation – primarily breach of contract, use of C-type of things.

What’s your mediation style?

My mediation style is collaborative. I don't get angry, I don't get emotional, I try to make be as objective as absolutely possible. I ask the parties to be objective as well, as much as they can be, and really, it's just working with the parties to understand really what their hot buttons are, what's bothering them, and then just listen well, and then try to move the parties towards, some middle ground in attempt to mediate and settle their dispute.

What should parties do prior to mediation?

What I like to do prior to mediation, besides reading the mediation statements of course, is I like to reach out to each of the attorneys, and typically on multiple party construction cases it's very helpful to do that ahead of time; see what the hot button points are for their clients or what/how they're perceiving the case. I don't get them to commit to anything, I just want to get a feel for really how the parties have been conducting themselves, where they think there is some potential issues, as well as some potential openings for trying to resolve and I found that can be very helpful and it really moves the actual mediation along a lot quicker because I hit the ground running, having talked to everybody at least once already.

What makes you a successful mediator?

I think to be a successful mediator, it’s sort of my theme is: you have to listen and you have to come up with sometimes creative solutions, as long as that works for everybody. Particularly in construction litigation you've got a lot of parties, you've got coverage issues, you've got insurance carriers, you've got owners that have are upset about problems that sort of thing … so, I think the key really is to bring my experience to the table and then try to find a resolution amongst a lot of parties, with which they all have different exposures and risks in the case, and so really think working and listening and working everybody together to see if we can get to a central resolution that's how I approach it.

What types of cases are you skilled at mediating?

I focus mostly on construction defect cases and commercial disputes, mostly contract breaching, contract disputes, but I've done construction most of my career and so that's an area that I really tend to work in because I know the people in that area.

Parting thought:

I think if people come to a mediation with an open mind we can get it done – I mean I know there's emotions sometimes, obviously there's money involved - but if people come with an open mind and aren't too entrenched in their position there’s a much better chance to get it settled that day or shortly thereafter. And the one thing I like to do is work the phones after if we don't get it done on the day of the mediation and has been successful too; particularly when you have multiple parties, and you've got insurance carriers, you just have a lot of things going on, difficult to get done in one day, I am committed to work in the phones until we do get it done.