Atlanta-based Miles Mediation and Arbitration has opened a Charlotte location—-its first outside of Georgia—with an initial slate of eight neutrals.

As demand for alternative dispute resolution continues amid the pandemic, the ADR firm said it also is assessing three other Southeastern markets and will likely announce another location within the next year.

While there are lawyers practicing ADR in Charlotte, Miles Mediation is the first established ADR firm to open an on-site facility in Charlotte, said founder John Miles. Its new 7,000-square-foot office, which opened June 15, is located in SouthPark at 6101 Carnegie Blvd.

"There is no one there doing what we do," Miles said, explaining that the Charlotte ADR market is made up of local attorneys with individual practices who hold mediations at the offices of the parties' lawyers.

"In ADR, we are neutral—trying to find common ground and get people on the path to resolution. I find that can be done more easily at a neutral site," Miles said. "It's an environment where the parties can focus on the dispute for as long as needed for resolution. That leads to a higher success rate."

Miles Mediation's focus in Charlotte is on commercial ADR, including real estate and insurance coverage disputes, said chief marketing and business development officer Marcie Dickson. It also will handle family law and trusts and estates disputes.

Dickson said the Atlanta ADR firm started working on a Charlotte office about a year ago, learning the local market and recruiting experienced neutrals. With 35 registered neutrals for its Atlanta headquarters and another five at its Savannah branch, Miles Mediation is one of the largest ADR firms in Georgia.

The new Charlotte location is part of a push to expand into a Southeastern ADR firm, Dickson said. "With the courts shut down due to COVID-19, ADR offers clients a way to get cases resolved faster, save money and not deal with the stress of litigation in an already stressful time," she added.

Miles Mediation sought out neutrals in Charlotte with substantive knowledge and experience—as well as a successful track record, Miles said. "We want people who are making ADR a priority in their practice—and not just doing mediations once or twice a month."

Two initial recruits were Jason James and Steve Dunn. James is a litigation partner at Charlotte's Bell Davis & Pitt and has been a certified North Carolina mediator for 12 years. Dunn opened his own mediation practice last year after 20 years at Charlotte employment law firm Van Hoy, Reutlinger, Adams & Pierce, where he'd been a name partner.

The firm's other Charlotte neutrals include Jim Cooley, a senior partner with Womble Bond Dickinson who has handled mediations for about 20 years; Ward Davis, a partner with Bell Davis & Pitt; Meredith Jeffries, a member of Alexander Ricks; Nancy Norelli, a former Mecklenberg County district court judge who is the founding partner of Norelli Law; Elizabeth Todd, who has her own law firm; and Danae Woodward, a partner in Woodward & Woodward.

On-Site and Virtual

As at Miles Mediation's Atlanta and Savannah locations, dispute resolution in Charlotte will be a mix of on-site and virtual meetings amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. "We're going to adapt as the situation dictates," Miles said. "We're sensitive to our clients' level of comfort."

Miles Mediation reopened its offices for in-person mediations earlier this month, after shifting to virtual ones in March. By May, Miles said, "a significant number of customers were wanting in-person mediation again."

So far, he said, about half the Atlanta clients are electing to mediate in person, adding that the firm had 12 mediations at its headquarters booked for Tuesday, split evenly between on-site and virtual.

The firm's Atlanta headquarters allows for ample social distancing, he added, noting that it had just moved into much larger digs at The Terraces, near Perimeter Mall, three weeks before the pandemic hit in mid-March. Ordinarily, the 20,000-square-foot office, with 50 conference rooms for the various parties, offers enough space for as many as 15 mediations at any one time.

Miles said mediations scheduled for June in Savannah and Charlotte also are about evenly split between in-person and virtual. August mediations scheduled for Charlotte so far are all in person, he said.

In addition to social distancing, Miles Mediation has instituted safety precautions for onsite mediations that include temperature checks for visitors on arrival and wearing masks.

"So far it's running smoothly," he said, adding that visitors have been very cooperative about observing the safety measures. "My sense is most people are desiring some sense of normalcy, and so they want to make it work."

"The majority of the legal public wants to do mediations in person," he added. "Whether the virus will allow that as we go forward—who knows?"