Due to the spiraling costs of litigation and court delays arising from serious case backlogs, the firm believes that alternative dispute resolution methods, such as arbitration and mediation, often provide the most efficient and effective means of resolving controversies. Furthermore, courts today in New Mexico and around the country are pressing litigants to mediate.

In addition to representing clients in arbitration and mediation, members of the firm are available to serve as mediators and arbitrators of disputes. A number of the firm’s attorneys have received special training in negotiation and settlement facilitation and have served as arbitrators, mediators and settlement facilitators. For example, Timothy M. Sheehan is a member of the Construction Industry Arbitration Panel of the American Arbitration Association, as well as the Association’s Large, Complex Case Panel, and has served as an arbitrator in a variety of complex construction disputes. He is also a member of the Association of Attorney-Mediators, and has received mediation training from the Attorney-Mediators Institute in Houston, Texas. Mr. Sheehan has served as a mediator and settlement facilitator in numerous commercial disputes.

Briggs F. Cheney, Of Counsel to the firm, is a member of the Association of Attorney Mediators, and was trained in mediation by the Attorney-Mediators Institute in Houston, Texas. He also is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s panel of neutral arbitrators and its Large, Complex Case Panel. Mr. Cheney mediates and arbitrates primarily in the personal injury area, and has served as a mediator or arbitrator in more than 100 cases.

Wendy E. York, Of Counsel to the firm, maintains a full-time arbitration and mediation practice and also serves as a Special Master by court appointment. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. York served as a trial court judge in the Civil Division of the Second Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico for eight years, where she presided over more than 1,200 civil cases, including tort cases, employment cases, class actions, commercial litigation and complex litigation. As a result of her judicial experience, she has a unique ability to help disputants appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of their positions and the vagaries that can make going to trial so risky and unpredictable. Ms. York has received advanced training in dispute resolution from Pepperdine University.