Kane Law & Mediation Services, LLC

Kane Law & Mediation Services

My mission is to offer the highest quality mediation, collaborative legal counsel and related consulting services. I serve Bellevue and Seattle-area couples and families who want to achieve “Win-Win” divorces, parenting plans, and property settlements while avoiding costly, uncertain, and acrimonious litigation. I also serve families and closely-held businesses wrestling with intergenerational and business issues. As a litigation partner for many years in major Seattle law firms, I am well aware of the financial and emotional costs of lawsuits. My goal as a mediator is to facilitate fair and durable outcomes that work for all parties — allowing them to move forward with their lives, families, and businesses. If parties have agreed to arbitrate their differences, I can also assume the role of the arbitrator and decision-maker — seasoned by many years of experience in evaluating claims in complex litigation.

My law practice focuses on collaborative solutions to legal problems. I work with clients whose goal is the fair settlement of disputes without lawsuits. If all parties are dedicated to this goal, clients and skilled counsel can achieve satisfying results by brainstorming options and negotiating mutually beneficial outcomes while preserving important relationships. I also am available to assist clients needing unbundled legal services such as mediation or negotiation coaching, evaluation of potential legal claims, preparation of documents, and second opinions on legal issues. Finally, I work with executives and boards to conduct independent internal investigations of alleged employee misconduct.

My services as a consultant range from helping clients transition to their preferred futures to working interactively with leaders and their key personnel to build teams, manage organizational change, and resolve serious internal conflict. As a coach, I deliver the important gifts of experience, detached perspective, problem solving, and structure in regularly scheduled “one on one” telephone conferences or, if clients prefer, face-to-face meetings.

About Us – Christopher Kane, Esq.

Mediation & Legal Focus

• Mediating Divorces & Parenting Plans
• Collaborative Divorce Representation
• Limited Legal Services

Experience

• Principal, Kane Law & Mediation Services, LLC, 2000 - 2008
      Mediated 65+ Divorces
      Mediated Prenuptial Agreements
      Mediated Parenting Plans & Child Custody Disputes
      Represented Spouses in Collaborative Divorces
      Provided Limited Legal Services, e.g., second opinions, legal strategies, options going forward, non-contested divorces
• Of Counsel, Foster Pepper & Shefelman, PLLC, 1998 - 2000
• Principal, Law Offices of Christopher Kane, 1995 - 1997
• President, Lawyer Selection Advisors, 1996 - 1997
• Adjunct Professor, Seattle University Business School, Masters Program, 1994 - 1995 & Edmonds CC, 2001 - 2002
• Litigation Partner, Ferguson & Burdell & Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt, 1979 - 1995; Associate, 1973 - 1979
• Captain, U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, 1969 - 1973
• Legislative Aide, U.S. Senator Henry M. Jackson, 1968 - 1969

Education

• J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1969
• B.A., Political Science, Seattle University, 1966

Applicable Training & Professional Memberships

• Advanced Family Law Practitioner Certified, Association for Conflict Resolution (formerly the Academy of Family Law Mediators)
• International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
• King County Bar Association (Collaborative Law Section)
• King County Collaborative Law Association
• Certified Mediation and Intensive Family Law Mediation Training, UW Law School
• Certified Arbitrator, International Center of Arbitration
• Past Member of Article 39.1 Panel of Volunteer Mediators, U.S. Federal Court, Seattle, Washington