Experienced, Creative, Tenacious
Few people are more experienced at negotiation and the art of mediated settlements then Mel Wolovits. Since 1989 Mel has been appointed by a court, agreed to mediate, or has been an advocate in excess of 400 mediations, including Partnership and Shareholder Disputes, Business Torts, Breach of Contracts, Collections, Anti-Trust, Non-Compete, Professional Liability, Personal Injury, Employer-Employee Matters, Securities Fraud, Construction Law, DTPA, including many multi-party disputes.
Mel's deep involvement in ADR brings together all of his education, training and experience, including the
Financial precision of an accountant
Teaching ability of an educator
Organizational prowess of an agency administrator
Broad experiences of a trial lawyer and litigator for 33 years
Training and preparation of a top mediator/negotiator
Wisdom from age
All of these traits combine to make WOLOVITS Dispute Resolution your go-to group for quality ADR
Even when he worked as an advocate prosecuting or defending a vast array of cases, Mel was known as an attorney who had keen listening skills and unique understanding of human psychology, motivation and interests.
Since 1973 Mel litigated cases on behalf of more than 1,000 businesses and individuals, in addition to claims representing the U.S. government, receiving jury verdicts in 31 trials, and awards in more than 100 arbitrations, bench trials and preliminary injunction hearings. He has also represented clients in approximately 20 appeals or mandamus actions before the Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court.
He's A Veteran of
Both Sides of the Docket
On the plaintiff side, Mel's trial and litigation experience includes employment disputes, non-compete agreements, lease agreements, antitrust, merger/acquisitions, price-fixing, business partnership dissolutions, shareholder disputes, interference with contractual relationships, franchising, trademarks, collections, promissory notes, as well as divorces and other family law matters, probate, misrepresentation, fraud, deceptive trade practice, construction, medical malpractice, truck, automobile, and a broad range of other personal injury claims.
From the defense side, Mel has represented individuals and businesses in lawsuits involving the failure to provide adequate security, the sale of real property involving claims of fraud and/or DTPA, breach of non-compete agreements, breach of contract, interference with contractual relationships, commercial collections, family law matters, and medical malpractice acting as private legal counsel to physicians.
His Broad and Varied Education
and Experiences Are Unparalleled
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Mel received a B.S. in Business with a major in Accounting from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1967), a M.S. in Education from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio (1970), and his J.D. from the Cleveland-Marshal School of Law, Cleveland State University (1973), where he was awarded the Am Jur award for highest grade in the class in Evidence.
After law school, Mel worked as a trial lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission litigating complex antitrust and trade regulation cases before administrative and federal courts. These cases involved many national and multinational corporations on matters such as price fixing, mergers and acquisitions, franchising, auto defects, and deceptive trade regulations. In 1979 he came to Texas as Assistant Regional Director for the FTC's Dallas Regional Office, responsible for enforcing federal antitrust, consumer protection and trade regulation laws in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Mel was involved in cases involving trade regulation, anti-trust, franchising, deceptive trade practices, truth-in-lending, and fair credit reporting.
Mel established his own Dallas-based practice in 1981, primarily focused on business law. He represented both businesses and individuals in forming corporations and partnerships and negotiated a wide array of agreements involving employment, shareholders, partnerships, franchises, leases, the purchase or sale of businesses, mergers and acquisitions, and custodial and property settlements in family law matters. His work also included real estate financing, trademark registrations, will, trusts, probate and estate planning.
In the late 1980s, Mel's practice turned in the direction of personal injury and in 1992 Mel was Board Certified as a Trial Attorney by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in 1992. By then, he had seen from all sides the brutal toll that adversarial conflict can take on the people involved. At the same time, mediation and other ADR techniques were gaining a foothold in North Texas as a less costly, risky, and stressful way to resolve conflicts. "In graduate school and as a teacher I did a lot of work in the area of group dynamics and group process" he says. "ADR offered an opportunity to bring my teaching and graduate education together with my legal education and stake out new directions in bringing people together to resolve disputes."
His Extensive and Varied Training in All Facets of ADR
Mel attended the Dallas Bar Association's first mediation training in 1989. In the early 1990s, he received both basic and advanced mediation training from the Attorney-Mediators' Institute. Later he took both basic and intermediate training from the Dallas Bar Association's Collaborative Law Training Program. In 2004, Mel trained at Harvard Law School's Negotiation Workshop, taught by such luminaries as Robert Bordone and Michael Moffit (authors of The Handbook of Dispute Resolution) and Roger Fisher (author of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreements Without Giving In). He subsequently turned his practice to ADR on a full-time basis. Mel has had in excess of 300 hours of mediation training.
Trained as an arbitrator by the Financial Industry Regulatory Association (formerly National Association of Securities Dealers.); and trained in Collaborative Law, having completed Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Training in Collaborative Law.
A Plethora of Professional Activities
Mel's professional activities include being President, Association of Attorney-Mediators, No Texas Chapter (2006-2008); Treasurer, Dallas Bar Association, Collaborative Law Section; participant Dallas Bar Association Volunteer Family Law Training Program; the Attorney Care Program, which provided pro bono legal representation to survivors and families of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center; and the Dallas Trial Lawyers Association program for providing pro bono legal services to Katrina Hurricane Victims. He also participates in court-annexed pro bono mediations.
Mel has made presentations at the 2006 and the 2007 Dallas Bar Association Collaborative Law Section, Basic Training Course The Participation Agreement; at the 2006 Advance Training Course Ethical Issues in Collaborative Law; and in the 2007 Intermediate Training Course Redirecting Conversation.
His Family and Hobbies
Mel is married to Ann Goldsmith Wolovits, a psychotherapist, and they have 2 adult married children, and 2 beautiful granddaughters.
Mel's personal hobbies include running, swimming, scuba diving, and trying to learn to play piano.