Michael Kelsheimer is an experienced litigator, mediator, motorsport driver, and racing fan. Much like motorsport, litigation involves intense competition. Strategy, skill and precision play crucial roles. Participants navigate a complex course making challenging and, sometimes, split-second decisions. Pursuit of victory requires preparation, teamwork, understanding of the rules and follow through. Mediation is no different.

Approach

A great mediator can help parties navigate a complex track to resolution. And, when resolution isn’t the best option, the mediator can help the parties find confidence that their decision to proceed to trial is their best choice. An unprepared, uneducated, and uninvested mediator often can do neither. Choose a person to help you negotiate the track to resolution who is as talented and capable as you are. With more than 20 years’ experience with employment litigation and complex commercial cases as both claimant and respondent, Michael is passionate about racing and passionate about his role in support of your litigation objectives:

Preparation

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Preparation is more than just reading submitted materials (though not everyone even does that).  It’s understanding the law.  It’s knowing the tendencies of the judge and the lawyers on the case.  It’s doing everything possible in advance to help the parties get off the line as quickly as possible once mediation starts.  Michael will be prepared.  He will know the issues.  He will know the law.  He will help you make the most of your time together.

Teamwork

Teamwork

Mediators are neutral to the dispute, but a good mediator is still your teammate.  Michael will support you and your client in mediation.  He will be a sounding board for your theories and help assess them.  He will press the other side with the best arguments you can muster. He will support your voice to help your client weigh the difficult options before them.

Understanding

Understanding

Whether individual or entity, litigants are complex.  Listening – really listening – facilitates the trust necessary to effectively work with a mediator.  That trust then enables a mediator to help the parties identify the best course forward – which may (or may not) be settlement.  Truly listening and asking the right questions are rare skills that help set Michael apart from other mediators and helps litigants make the best decision available moving forward.

Follow Through

Follow Throuigh

For any of a million reasons, the best direction forward may not be revealed in a single mediation session.  Many mediators take that as a license to give up.  Michael does not.  He will work the problem until the right line of approach is clear –even if it happens after the session is over.

Our Expertise

Michael serves as a mediator in employment disputes and complex commercial matters and occasionally engages to strategically facilitate negotiations on behalf of a party in litigation.

Michael was born in West Texas where he was raised with a strong work ethic and practical approach to problem solving.  Encouraged to become a lawyer from an early age because of his penchant for argument, Michael attended Texas Tech University where he received degrees in Economics and Political Science. Read More…

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Inspiration

  • “Peace is not absence of conflict.  It is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” – Ronald Reagan

  • "If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever.  Use a pile driver.  Hit the point once.  Then come back and hit it again.  Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack."  – Winston Churchill

  • “The wise person does not give the right answer but poses the right questions.” – Claude Levi-Strauss

  • "Discourage Litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can.  Point out to them the nominal winner is often a real loser – in fees, expenses and waste of time."

    Abraham Lincoln

  • “It takes two to speak the truth – one to speak and the other to hear.”

    Henry David Thoreau

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