About LEDR

A New and Better Approach to Employment Dispute Mediations

Founded by Tony Lewis with his more than twenty-five years of world-class employment law experience and over twenty-three years of experience in employment mediations, Lewis Employment Dispute Resolution (LEDR) offers a unique, carefully crafted approach to mediation that reduces gamesmanship, quickly overcomes obstacles to settlement, and empowers parties to resolve their dispute with confidence.

Tony is a direct and candid mediator who treats all parties with the respect, attention, care, and diligence they all deserve as he skillfully facilitates the resolution of employment disputes that are often fiercely fought and emotionally charged. Whatever side you're on, and whatever circumstances you face as counsel, it is a safe bet that he's been there and he's done that.

The LEDR mediation process follows an efficient, structured schedule of seven hours, provides maximum flexibility for remote or in-person attendance at mediation sessions, and utilizes advanced negotiation techniques to facilitate prompt settlements. The goal of every LEDR mediation is to reach a binding resolution on the day of the mediation session. All parties will gain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their respective case and the wisdom of settling their dispute in a manner that minimizes or completely eliminates "buyer's remorse" that is a common result of other mediation processes, while providing decisional justification to employees, employers (and related parties), and, where applicable, employment practices liability insurers and their appointed claims counsel and adjusters. LEDR's services are provided at a very reasonable cost with no hidden fees or charges, divided as the parties agree.

The LEDR Mediation Process

A mediation with LEDR provides a comprehensive mediation experience with no hidden fees, no hidden mediator agendas, no bureaucratic or administrative go-betweens, and no unfair surprises by the mediator.

The LEDR mediation process begins with a scheduling inquiry made directly to Tony Lewis (tony@lewisedr.com). Upon scheduling confirmation, Tony will send to each party (counsel for the employee and the employer and employer-related parties and entities such as individual defendants and affiliated entities) an electronic packet for review and return containing the following:

An agreement for confidential mediation to be signed by all mediation parties, their counsel, and any other participants in the mediation session;
A template for mediation briefs that provides an easy, efficient, thorough, and parallel structure for parties to present their litigation status, positions, disputed issues, important evidence, and timelines of key events to the mediator according to the customary employment dispute paradigms without the need to explain such paradigms to the mediator (legal citations and briefing will rarely be necessary), while also affording the parties a full opportunity to provide any additional information or unusual legal arguments not covered in the structured sections;
A contact sheet for parties to disclose all of the respective parties' expected participants;
Instructions for remote (or in-person, if the parties have elected that option) attendance at the mediation session.

Upon receipt of the packet, the parties are expected to promptly return their counterparts of the mediation agreement with their respective payment of their portion of the mediation fee to confirm the mediation session (after a short "courtesy hold" of the mediation date).

The mediation briefs (following the provided template) must be provided no later than one week (five business days, excluding weekends and court holidays) prior to the scheduled mediation date (earlier submissions are encouraged). Tony will confirm receipt of each party's mediation brief individually with respective counsel and may request to schedule a preliminary call with one or more involved counsel prior to the mediation session as needed to discuss contents of the briefing or anticipated issues or concerns that may need to be addressed prior to the mediation session (some issues may be addressed in advance by email communications). Counsel are welcome to request such communication even if Tony has not done so.

The mediation session will typically begin at 10 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, unless other starting and ending times are confirmed in advance, but in almost all circumstances the mediation will be a structured, seven-hour period divided between case understanding and analysis, negotiation principles, proposal and counterproposals, and closure of the mediation session with the goal of a judicially enforceable resolution in every case. Each division of time will be staggered with the parties. There is generally no joint session of all parties and counsel absent unusual circumstances beyond introductions, and this is merely to provide assurance to all parties that all necessary participants are present and engaged in the mediation process along with the simple but valuable exercise of placing faces with names. The parties and their counsel must commit to the completion of the seven-hour process: no dramatic "walk-outs," as this is a differently designed mediation structure that requires all parties to honor the entire process from start to finish.

The goal of every LEDR mediation is to reach a fully executed, judicially enforceable settlement by the end of the mediation session, but in cases where this is not possible, there is no additional charge for Tony's reasonable mediator follow-up efforts. Should unusual circumstances arise where an additional fee is required for Tony's services, the parties will be notified in advance of incurring any such fees and an agreement must be reached by all parties for those services and the division of any such fees.

Tony does not agree with some mediator approaches to market additional services to a party within the context of the mediation and strongly believes such practices present a self-serving conflict of interest for the mediator's neutrality and undermine the goal of reaching a resolution of every dispute by the end of the mediation session.

Upon resolution of the dispute with a fully executed agreement in the mediation, Tony provides all parties with copies of all executions of the agreement made in counterparts and confirms the conclusion of the mediation process. The parties are then responsible for concluding and dismissing any pending litigation, administrative processes, and other related proceedings as contemplated in the agreement.