Facilitative Business Mediation in Seattle
Help resolving disputes between founders, partners, owners, and family members in business together, so the business and the relationships can both come out intact.
Business conflict rarely stays in the conference room. A disagreement between co-founders about equity, a partner who wants out while the other wants to keep building, a family business caught between generations, a vendor relationship that has gone sour: these disputes pull on money, reputation, and years of shared history all at once. Litigation can settle the legal question, but it tends to be slow, expensive, and public, and it almost never leaves the people involved on speaking terms.
Facilitative mediation is a different route. I act as a neutral third party who structures the conversation, keeps it productive, and helps each side say what they actually need. I don’t decide who is right, and I don’t hand down a ruling. You and the other party make the decisions, which is why agreements reached this way tend to hold.
Why I do this work
As an entrepreneur for almost two decades, I know what it is to share ownership with someone, to disagree about the direction of something you both built, and to work out a separation. Since then, I have spent my career as a leadership coach and operations consultant, working inside organizations with founders, executive teams, and boards. I completed a 40-hour business mediation training at the University of Washington School of Law, and I bring that training together with the practical business experience that most disputes of this kind call for.
I am also IFS-certified, which means I pay close attention to what sits underneath a stated position. Most business disputes have a financial surface and an emotional core, and agreements get easier once both are on the table.
What facilitative mediation means
In a facilitative approach, my job is to run the process, not to decide the outcome. I won’t tell you what to do or push your toward a particular settlement. I will help you get clear on your own interests, hear the other party’s interests accurately, generate options neither of you had considered, and test those options against reality. If it is useful, your attorneys can join the sessions or review any agreement before you sign it. I am not an attorney and I don’t give legal advice, so I encourage everyone to have counsel in the background.
Mediation in Washington is confidential. Under the state’s Uniform Mediation Act, what is said in the process is generally protected from being used later in court, with limited exceptions. Everyone signs a mediation agreement before we begin that spells out how that works.
Who I work with
I focus on disputes where the relationship matters going forward, or where both sides want to resolve things quickly and privately. Common situations include:
Co-founder and partner disagreements over roles, equity, decision-making, or direction
Buyouts, exits, and business dissolutions, including the negotiation of terms
Family businesses facing succession, ownership, or sibling and generational conflict
Disputes between owners and key employees or contractors
Vendor, client, and contract disagreements between small and mid-sized businesses
Conflict inside a leadership team that is affecting the company
If your situation is not on this list, reach out anyway. Many disputes cross categories.
How it works
It starts with a short confidential conversation with each party to understand the situation and to confirm that mediation is a good fit. If it is, we sign a mediation agreement and schedule a virtual session. Some disputes settle in a single half-day or full-day session, and others take several shorter meetings spread over a few weeks, depending on how many issues are on the table and how much preparation each side needs.
Before the session, I ask each party to share a brief written summary of the issues and what a good outcome would look like. During the session, we work through the issues together and sometimes in separate rooms, so each person can speak freely. If an agreement comes together, I help put the terms in writing so your attorneys can formalize them. If it doesn’t, you have lost very little and usually understand the dispute much better than when you started.
Fees
Based on scope of work.
Next Steps
If you are in a business dispute and want to talk about whether mediation makes sense, you can schedule a free 30-minute discovery call. It is confidential, and there is no obligation.