Pieces in place. Peace of mind.
Finding the appropriate settlement value before a jury decides for you is the entire job. Every case is its own puzzle, and the pieces sit in different rooms. I've spent twenty years working from both of those rooms. Now I sit between them.
Katherine “Katie” Bandy Weber
I tried commercial and intellectual property cases to Texas state and federal juries for more than twenty years. My experience as an advocate prepared me well to take appointments as a neutral. That background is the reason counsel call me: I have read the position statements from your chair, and I know which arguments survive a Daubert motion and which ones a jury will simply not care about.
My docket included technology, online education, real estate, trade secret, trademark, and copyright fights. I also represented plaintiffs and defendants in contract and partnership disputes (business divorces). I have handled personal injury litigation on both the plaintiff’s side and the insurance defense side. I handled numerous family law cases through the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program. More recently I have served as a Title IX hearing officer and adjudicator of equal opportunity complaints at the University of North Texas, and I teach as an adjunct. Both roles are the same discipline as mediation: get the record straight, hear people out completely, and reach a defensible result without theater.
I mediate in person in the DFW area at a mutually agreeable location and by Zoom nationwide. Sessions are flat-rate, so you don't spend the afternoon watching the clock.
SMU Dedman School of Law, 2004
The University of Texas at Austin
What I mediate
I take most civil disputes: two-party or multi-party, pre-suit or on the eve of trial. The areas below are where my docket ran deepest. They are a starting point, not a limit. If your case doesn't fit neatly into one of them, call anyway. I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right neutral, and if I'm not, I'll help you find one at no charge.
Commercial & Business
Breach of contract, partnership and shareholder disputes, business divorce, fraud claims, vendor and distribution fights.
Intellectual Property
Trade secret misappropriation, trademark and copyright infringement, licensing disputes, departing-employee cases.
Employment
Discrimination and retaliation claims, non-competes, wage disputes, internal investigations that have hardened into litigation.
Technology & Education
Software contract disputes, data and platform disagreements, disputes involving colleges and online providers.
Real Estate
Purchase and lease disputes, commercial landlord-tenant matters, brokerage and construction-adjacent claims.
Probate & Fiduciary
Will contests, disputes among beneficiaries, trustee and executor disagreements, and related fiduciary claims.
Personal Injury
Auto and trucking collisions, premises liability, and other negligence claims, with experience on both the plaintiff and insurance defense sides.
Family Law
Divorce, property division, conservatorship and possession schedules, and enforcement and modification disputes. Hold a date.
Arbitration
I also sit as an arbitrator, alone or on a panel, in commercial, employment, intellectual property, and other civil disputes, under the rules the parties select. Twenty years of trying cases to verdict means I know how to run an evidentiary hearing, rule on what matters, and write an award that holds up.
Arbitration is quoted per engagement rather than at the mediation flat rate. Email katie@kbwpllc.com with the clause and a short description of the dispute.
Title IX and campus disputes
As a Title IX hearing officer and an adjudicator of equal opportunity complaints at the University of North Texas, I ran live hearings, weighed credibility, applied the institution's policy to a contested record, and wrote the determinations that followed. I know what the process asks of complainants, respondents, advisors, and the institution, and I know where it breaks down.
Informal resolution
Where the institution's policy allows it and both parties consent, I serve as the neutral facilitator for informal resolution of Title IX and sexual misconduct complaints, with the confidentiality and structure the regulations require. Sessions run by Zoom for parties anywhere in the country, or in person where it makes sense.
Litigation that follows
Mediation of the lawsuits campus proceedings produce: Title IX and due process claims against institutions, faculty and staff discrimination and retaliation claims, and disputes between students, employees, and their schools. Both sides get a neutral who has read a hearing record before and knows what a court will make of it.
For Title IX counsel
If your practice runs nationwide, so does mine. I mediate by Zoom in every state and travel when the matter calls for it. Flat rate, per party, the same as any other mediation. Check a date or email me about a matter.
Flat rate, per party
The flat fee covers the whole engagement if we close at or before the scheduled session. I don't send an invoice after the fact for time spent reading your file or calling you the following week. The rate for your session comes with the scheduling letter, fee agreement, and intake form, within 24 hours of your request.
What the fee covers
The fee covers reading position statements and exhibits, pre-mediation calls with counsel, the session itself, drafting assistance on the mediated settlement agreement, and follow-up with both sides if we don't close in the room. Parties represented by the same lawyer or firm count as one party.
In-person sessions include conference space, parking, and lunch on full days, anywhere within fifteen miles of downtown Dallas; sessions farther out are quoted when we schedule. Sessions running later than 5:00 may incur an hourly rate. Cancellations more than three business days out are free; within three business days they are nonrefundable but may be applied to a rescheduled date.
How a full day runs
A full day typically reflects the schedule below. If your case has unique needs (for example, separate rooms from the start, no joint session, or an expert presentation), say so and we'll build the day around it.
Position statements
Send me everything you want me to read, confidential or shared. Ten pages is plenty. Tell me what your client actually needs, which is often not what the pleadings say.
Arrival, caucus, and the shuttle
Each side gets its own room. I start with the party that has the most to explain, and I listen before I push on anything. Then offers start to move, and so does information. Most of the real work is testing each side's theory of what a jury does with the facts they'd rather not discuss.
The hard part, then terms on paper
Lunch is brought in for everyone, because momentum is the scarcest thing in the room and momentum drives resolution. The afternoon is where most cases stall or settle; the last two pieces are always the hardest to fit. If we're genuinely at impasse I'll tell you plainly rather than wasting your time. We draft and sign a mediated settlement agreement before anyone leaves for the day. Under Texas law an MSA that meets the statute's requirements is binding, so we get the terms right in the room.
Follow-up
If we don't close, I keep working the phones at no additional charge. A meaningful number of cases settle within two weeks following the session.
Common questions
How does mediation work in Texas?
A neutral third party helps both sides work toward a resolution neither side can order on their own. Mediation communications are confidential under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 154.073, so what's said in the room stays out of the courtroom if the case doesn't settle. Most sessions run a full or half day, with each side caucusing separately while I move between rooms as offers and information develop.
What's the difference between mediation and arbitration?
Mediation is voluntary and non-binding until both sides agree to specific terms. As a mediator I have no power to decide the outcome, only to help the parties find one. Arbitration is closer to a private trial: the arbitrator hears the evidence and issues a binding award, whether or not either side likes it. I serve in both roles. Most civil cases in Texas go to mediation first, often because a court has ordered it or a contract requires it, before either side considers arbitration or trial.
Is a mediated settlement agreement binding in Texas?
Yes, if it meets the requirements of the Texas mediation statute, a signed mediated settlement agreement is binding, which is why the terms get drafted and signed in the room before anyone leaves. That finality is one of the main advantages of mediation over continuing to litigate: both sides walk out with an enforceable agreement rather than a handshake that can unravel later.
Check a date
Hold an open date on my schedule yourself, or email me two or three that work for all counsel with a one-line description of the case. Either way you'll have a scheduling letter, fee agreement, and intake form within 24 hours.
See open dates →A date you pick is held tentatively until all counsel confirm and fees are paid.
Forms
Complete the intake form for your case type before we meet. Fill it in on screen, save the PDF, and return it to katie@kbwpllc.com. Position statements are for my eyes only unless you tell me otherwise.
Intake / Position Statement Civil cases · Fillable PDF · 5 pages Download → Family Law Intake Divorce and SAPCR · Fillable PDF · 5 pages Download →Adapted with permission from the intake form of John Shipp, Shipp ADR, Dallas. His generous license to use it is gratefully acknowledged.
A signed agreement is the last piece. What you leave with is peace of mind.