Woods Law & Dispute Resolution, LLC
C. CRAIG WOODS, Founder
Following a long and highly successful run as a bet-the-company trial lawyer for a top global law firm, Craig Woods founded Woods Law & Dispute Resolution, LLC in 2022 to continue pursuing his long-held passion for alternative dispute resolution and related areas of law. Woods Law offers four distinct types of service: (1) mediation, (2) arbitration, (3) consultation on complex litigation matters, including settlement and second opinions, and (4) legal ethics, including counseling and expert witness work. The firm has active matters in each of these practice areas and welcomes questions or inquiries about new engagements. Click on the links below to find out more about the firm’s work in, and approach to, these matters.
Further contact information and background on Craig are also included.
Services
Mediation
Craig mediates a wide variety of active and pre-litigation disputes, including those involving issues of business, commercial and contract law, complex personal injury and/or product liability, labor and employment, environmental law, professional liability, and civil rights. He believes in the magic of mediation, but he also understands that the magic can’t happen without thorough preparation and an approach that is tailored specifically to the needs of the parties and their respective counsel.
Arbitration
Craig regularly serves as an arbitrator in commercial disputes and other complex cases. He is keenly familiar with the myriad rules and laws that govern arbitral proceedings, but he also understands that arbitrations need to be administered and decided in way that reflects the fundamental purpose of alternative dispute resolution: to provide the participants with a private, expedient and cost-effective way to resolve cases, thereby avoiding some of the inefficiencies inherent in traditional litigation.
Litigation Services
Craig is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, and he continues to handle active litigation matters for select clients. He also consults regularly with other trial lawyers, business lawyers, in-house counsel, corporate executives and other non-lawyers on litigation strategy, tactics, evaluation, settlement and related issues. His lengthy and wide-ranging experience as an advocate and a neutral make him an ideal source for solid and cost-effective second opinions or other advice in complex cases.
Legal Ethics/Expert Work
As a former BigLaw ethics and loss prevention partner, Craig has significant expertise in many legal ethics and professional conduct issues, including conflicts of interest, UPL and other compliance matters, business intake, joint representation, client confidentiality, litigation finance, and professional liability defense. He continues to consult with, and provide advice to, lawyers, law firms, litigation funders and others on such issues. He also regularly serves as an expert witness in related cases.
“I learned so much from Craig and Woods Law.
I’ve had great success with all of Craigs free legal advice and help over the years.”
— Alyson K.
FEATURED ON
Mediation
During his nearly 40 years as a trial lawyer, Craig participated as an advocate in hundreds of mediations, sometimes serving as lead counsel in complex commercial, mass tort or environmental cases. Early in his career, Craig also began serving as a mediator. Beginning in the late 1980s, Craig was regularly appointed by state and federal courts in Ohio to mediate selected cases. He still serves as a volunteer mediator for the U.S. District Court for the S.D. Ohio. In part because of this work, Craig also began to conduct private mediations in selected cases, particularly those involving sensitive or particularly complicated disputes. Decades ago, in one of his first private cases, Craig successfully and quietly mediated a potential dispute between disparate branches of a well-known family over the proposed realignment of the family’s extensive business interests, real properties and other holdings, thereby helping stave off what could have been a protracted and very public lawsuit.
Since then, Craig has mediated a wide variety of cases, including business disputes and commercial disagreements, personal injury lawsuits, employment disputes, environmental matters and complex tort claims. He participates in several professional organizations and committees that focus on mediation and other forms of ADR, including the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and the FBA ADR Section. He has also presented on, or written about, mediation and other ADR-related topics in venues or publications throughout the U.S. Several years ago, for instance, he was asked by a noted Spanish mediation expert to do a presentation on U.S.-style mediation to about 200 of her colleagues in Madrid. More recently he has lectured on the topic at law schools and CLE events around the U.S.
Craig believes in the magic of mediation, but he also understands that the magic can’t happen without thorough preparation and an approach that is tailored specifically to the needs of the parties and their respective counsel. To that end, he works hard in advance of the mediation to learn the case, and he often caucuses with trial counsel well before the initial mediation session to solicit their views on how best to achieve a settlement of the matter.
At the mediation, Craig listens carefully to counsel and their clients, and he tries to build rapport with each. He believes, though, that effective mediation necessarily involves more than passive facilitation or shuttle diplomacy. He will, as appropriate, press the parties to reexamine their own assumptions or will offer evaluative comments where necessary to keep discussions moving toward resolution. As a last resort, he will also make a mediator’s proposal, but only if he feels that all other potential avenues have been exhausted. He is also persistent. As long as he thinks progress can be made toward a negotiated resolution, he will keep at it – at least until counsel and/or the parties tell him to stand down.
A Constant Source of Motivation
Think of me as your personal cheering section, helping you find the strength you didn’t know you had. I’m all about positive reinforcement.
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