Who in their right mind develops a startup company in a highly competitive field and begins this task in their late 60s? Me. Why? In part because I believe that with my team of talented attorney/neutrals we can do a better job of providing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services than our competitors. Our competitors are legion and several of them have vast financial resources. With a shoe string budget and boundless energy, we are still able to compete effectively. How? With unrelenting passion, skill and determination to provide this socially beneficial service.
Pacific ADR is a boutique compared to the giants such as JAMS, AAA and others. I like the idea of a boutique. Our panel members are, to mix metaphors, like a team of ADR special forces professionals. We can rapidly deploy and hit the ground running. We are not constrained by bureaucratic procedures or internal corporate politics. However, we do have a philosophy. It is to provide efficient, energetic, tenacious and impartial service in every ADR assignment.
Trying to chart the best course to achieve the above goals is, naturally, easier said than done. Competition for ADR work is fierce. Since the last recession fewer individuals and closely held businesses can afford litigation. In Seattle Washington, a wealthy city, civil case filings in superior court have steadily dropped over the past three years with no end in sight. At the same time, many older lawyers, weary of years in the scrum of civil litigation, have decided that they would each make stellar mediators. Most will fail, but their attempted entry into the ADR market can still be temporarily disruptive.
Ultimately, the joy is in the struggle to compete. Having just finished the Nike founder Phil Knight’s autobiography Shoe Dog, a book that chronicles in detail the years of debt and uncertainty that plagued Nike before it became profitable, Mr. Knight’s closing assessment was stunning. Although now a multi billionaire, Phil Knight regrets that he can’t do it all over again! For him the shared challenges and relationships forged in adversity are what were and remain most important. Sure, winning is great but one learns from the struggle itself.
The Joy of a Startup Company
By Gregg Bertram