INTERCEDE MEDIATION - Key Persons

Andy Lax has been certified as a Superior Court mediator by the state of North Carolina for over fifteen years. In that time, he has helped hundreds of parties resolve their cases in mediation, including a wide variety of disputes. Aside from serving as a mediator, Andy has practiced in the field of civil litigation for thirty years, handling thousands of cases and taking more than two hundred of them to a jury verdict in multiple North Carolina and Federal courts. This range of experience aids him in relating to clients, and their attorneys, to formulate a fair resolution to their conflict. Andy is licensed to practice law in North Carolina, all federal districts in the state, as well as the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. He has degrees from The College of William & Mary and Wake Forest University School of Law.

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• Aviation Committee Member

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• President

Chase Saunders is a Charlotte native, married, children and grandchildren. He attended Charlotte schools, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Central Piedmont Community College, and most recently, the Mingle Real Estate School. He studied law and served as an Assistant District Attorney, Chief District Court Judge, and Superior Court Judge prior before entering the private practice of law with a the McNair Law Firm located in both Carolinas. His practice includes a general business practice, mediation and arbitration. He is active in civic affairs including The Rotary Club of Charlotte, the Global Vision Group, World Trade Association, World Affairs Council, and the Mecklenburg County Bar Association. Community regional and global business development is a primary interest.

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• Contributing Editor and Author of Chapter Titled "Attorney Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine" ( 3rd Ed. 2008 )

ERISA LITIGATION, contributing editor and author of chapter titled "Attorney Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine" (3rd ed. 2008)

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• Real Estate Broker in North Carolina

Paul Hefferon is a trial lawyer and certified mediator in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. He has practiced law in North Carolina for 32 years. He has tried numerous jury and nonjury trials across the state and has been involved in several different areas of litigation including personal injury, workers compensation, home owners association litigation, construction defects, and a wide variety of business and commercial cases. He has been a certified mediator for 10 years and has mediated approximately 400 cases in various counties. He has also served as an arbitrator in approximately 50 cases. He is a 1980 graduate of UNCC and he graduated from the UNC-CH School of Law in 1982. He served as an Assistant Public Defender immediately after law school, and soon shifted to a practice in civil litigation. He is married and has three grown daughters. Education: University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill, North Carolina J.D. - 1982 University of North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina B.A. - 1980

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• Partner at Higgins & Owens, PLLC in Charlotte

Raymond (Ray) E. Owens, Jr. is a partner at Higgins & Owens, PLLC in Charlotte. In 1978 he started his law practice with Walker Palmer and Miller, P.A., and for the next thirty one years he practiced with Kennedy, Covington, Lobdell and Hickman and its successor, K&L Gates, LLP. His civil practice has ranged from complex business litigation to First Amendment and defamation matters. Owens has published and spoken at a number of CLE events on a wide range of topics, including technology in discovery and how to handle difficult lawyers. Among other professional and community activities, Owens is a past chair of IOLTA and a former Board member of Legal Aid of North Carolina. Although he continues to practice as a trial lawyer, he has mediated and served as an arbitrator in over 1400 civil cases in his career and is one of the original panel members of Intercede, a dispute resolution panel based in Charlotte. He received a B.A degree summa cum laude from UNC-CH in 1975 and a J.D. from UNC-CH in 1978, where he was a member of the N.C. Law Review. Mr. Owens has spoken about alternate dispute resolution at many CLE sessions including for the N.C. Bar Association and the N.C. Business Court. Education: University of North Carolina, J.D., 1978