Alternative Dispute Resolution Experience

For the first seventeen years of Wayne Fagan’s law practice he divided his time between transactional work and litigation, Wayne felt that each type of work enhanced his skills in the other.

In his litigation work, Wayne practiced in both state and federal court (both federal district court and bankruptcy court) at the trial and appellate levels representing clients on court appointed criminal matters, guardian ad litem matters concerning civil commitments, and a broad range of civil matters representing clients in family inheritance disputes, general commercial litigation, defense of aircraft accident cases, anti-trust defense, products liability (both plaintiff and defense), patent and trademark infringment, wrongful termination, real estate development and construction litigation, including complex multi-party litigation.

It was the international transactional work that first introduced Wayne to alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Wayne’s clients from San Antonio (small and medium sized companies) were apprehensive about entering into international transactions, particulalry with foreign governments, if they were going to have to enforce their legal rights in foreign courts. Wayne found that if he inserted arbitration, mediation and step negotiation clauses in the contracts his clients felt that they were entering into more of a level playing field and were less reluctant to enter into the contracts which in fact were highly lucrative and a win/win for both contracting parties.

In 1987 Wayne left private practice and became Senior Vice President of The Dee Howard Co. (DHC). Wayne returned to private practice in 1990 and has devoted a substantial amount of his practice to ADR since that time serving as an advocate, settlement counsel, and as a neutral (both arbitrator and mediator) in both domestic and international disputes as well as teaching, writing, and lecturing on the subject both in the US and internationally.