The dispute is going to settle. The only question is how much you spend first. Mediate now and it is usually done in a day.
Decisions stall waiting for an outcome. Senior people spend their weeks on the dispute rather than the business. You are running a company on someone else's timeline.
Litigation determines who is right, which is worth paying for when the point is precedent. Most commercial disputes are not that.
Two or three years in litigation, or one day of mediation scheduled within weeks.
A fraction of documentary production, examinations, expert reports, and motions. Mediating early avoids spending on all of it before settling anyway.
Nothing enters a public record. Pricing, internal decisions, and the dispute itself stay between the parties.
You decide the terms. A tribunal is limited to the remedies the law provides. Parties in mediation build solutions no judge could order.
And one that does not appear in a cost analysis. A mediated resolution can leave the commercial relationship in place.
Most executives I mediate for are not looking for vindication. They want the matter finished.
Mark Lawrence is retained for commercial and executive disputes where the legal issue and the working relationship cannot be separated. He does not decide who is right. He runs a focused process that surfaces what is actually blocking settlement and helps each side assess its position realistically.
What the dispute is, where it is stuck, and whether mediation is the right route. If it is not, we will say so.
Both sides submit a brief. Where it helps, Mark speaks with each side beforehand about where there is room to move.
Half day or full day, in person across the Greater Toronto Area or virtually across Ontario.
Performance, payment, scope, or termination, particularly where the commercial relationship is worth keeping.
Direction, contribution, valuation, or exit, where the business cannot move until the owners do.
Conflict between senior leaders, or between an executive and the board, addressed before it becomes visible across the organization.
Where conflict at the top has already spread, facilitated work to rebuild trust and reset how decisions get made.
Coaching is also available for a leader facing a difficult counterpart. For organizations that expect recurring disputes, we design the clauses and escalation paths that resolve disagreement before it reaches counsel.
The first conversation costs nothing. If mediation is not the right route for your matter, we will say so.
