Using a style described by one attorney as “deliberative, pragmatic and strategic,” Jeff sees mediation as organized problem-solving. He has served as mediator since 1997, exploring cases and making strategic recommendations where needed, with the end goal of fair compromise. Jeff will follow up tenaciously if a matter does not settle on mediation day, because mediation is a process, not a ritual.
Jeff has served as arbitrator since 2002, serving as Chair and Panelist in cases involving construction; business dissolution and fiduciary duty; business disputes; health care facility, non-subscriber and professional negligence cases.
His 36 years of client representation work from 1986 through 2022 ranged from representing clients in high-stakes construction arbitrations, commercial litigation, and trying personal injury and product liability cases. He also maintained a practice as a business lawyer, representing many local businesses.
Jeff was elected an Associate Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and was Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization until he refocused his professional attention toward his work as a mediator and arbitrator.
Jeff served a term as a member of the Texas Pattern Jury Charge Committee responsible for a book intended to assist the bench and bar in preparing the court’s charge in jury cases involving business, consumer, insurance and employment cases.
The Austin Bar Association conferred the Professionalism Award on Jeff in 2009, recognizing him as a lawyer “who best exemplifies, by conduct and character, truly professional traits that others in the bar seek to emulate, and who all in the bar admire.”
Following the example of people who were great influencers in his life, Jeff is a teacher at heart, teaching ADR, Mediation and Negotiation since 2012 as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He has also taught as an adjunct at his alma mater, Baylor Law School; and in graduate programs at Southern Methodist University and Texas State Universities.
