THE FUTURE OF RESOLUTION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Accounting Department / Accounting Specialist
Andy Lax has worked as a litigation attorney for more than thirty years, handling cases for both plaintiffs and defendants in all North Carolina courts and all federal district courts in the state. He has taken over 200 hundred cases to a jury verdict. His cases have included a wide variety of litigation areas, including construction, business, insurance, contract, serious personal injury, wrongful death, medical and professional malpractice, and others.
Andy has also served as a mediator and arbitrator since 1998 when he was certified as a North Carolina Superior Court Mediator. His extensive litigation and mediation experience allows him to see both sides of a dispute in seeking a resolution. As an arbitrator, he is often selected to be the third, neutral, arbitrator on three-person panels.
Andy is a litigation attorney with Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, in their Charlotte office. He joined Miles Mediation in April 2021.
Education
Wake Forest University School of Law, J.D.,1985
The College of William & Mary, B.A., 1977
Job Titles:
- Admin Fee - $300 Per Party
Miles Mediation and Arbitration will charge the parties scheduled for a mediation that cancels within ten days a cancellation fee of $1000. However, mediations cancelled, rescheduled, or settled within a 24 hr. period will be charged 4 hrs. of the scheduled neutral's per party hourly rate to be billed directly to each party. Before cancelling, a different billing arrangement may be made by contacting support@milesmediation.com.
Ben McCoy joined Howser, Newman, & Besley at its inception in 1996 and has been a member of the firm since 1999, and continues to serve as the firm's managing member. While the foundation of Ben's practice is civil litigation, mediation has become the primary facet of Ben's law practice. Attorneys, State Legislators and Business Owners have hired Ben in nearly 2,000 cases and disputes to serve as Mediator and Arbitrator. The experience of handling both defense and plaintiff's matters helps make Ben desirable to both sides of the bar. Ben also is a certified Family Court mediator in South Carolina and accommodates litigants on the weekends, who are unable to miss work during the week.
Ben has litigated cases and served as neutral in matters involving a wide variety of legal areas, including medical malpractice, professional negligence, business contracts and disputes, premises liability, construction, wrongful death, bodily injury, school districts, municipalities, and family.
Throughout his career, Ben has strived to become what he calls a "lawyer's lawyer," the kind of attorney that other attorneys can count on and call when facing complex matters. Driven by the diverse challenges of working as an attorney, Ben loves that each case presents new obstacles to overcome, always forcing him to think creatively to provide his clients with the best possible outcomes.
Ben believes he does his best work when the moment is at its most intense. Clients appreciate the calm and collected demeanor with which he approaches each case. He zeroes in on the elements that he can control, so he can find a solution to their legal issues and resolve cases in a way that not only satisfies the client's needs, but makes them feel good about the result. Having lived in South Carolina since he was eight years old, Ben has a deep understanding of the state. Ben has lived in the Upstate, Midlands and Low Country of South Carolina, and also has worked in the Pee Dee. This gives Ben an appreciation for the residents of each region, including their employment and economy staples, and their interests and challenges.
Casey C. Crumbley is an experienced mediator, arbitrator, and a Veteran trial lawyer who has mediated hundreds of cases. In addition, he has had many mediators observe him conduct mediations as part of their training in becoming a mediator. He specializes in matters involving Workers' Compensation, Business Litigation, General Civil Litigation, Personal Injury, Estate Planning and Probate, and Corporate / Business Formation.
He is recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star and Top 100 of The National Trial Lawyers.
He currently serves as a Solicitor for the City of Locust Grove, Georgia, where he prosecutes criminal cases, and he previously prosecuted cases for the City of McDonough, Georgia. He is a past President of the Henry County Bar Association, and currently a Captain in the Air National Guard where he serves as an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate.
Education
The Citadel, Bachelor of Science (BS), Business Administration
Job Titles:
- Admin Fee - $200 Per Party
Miles Mediation and Arbitration will charge the parties scheduled for a mediation that cancels within ten days a cancellation fee of $500. However, mediations cancelled, rescheduled, or settled within a 24 hr. period will be charged 4 hrs. of the scheduled neutral's per party hourly rate to be billed directly to each party. Before cancelling, a different billing arrangement may be made by contacting support@milesmediation.com.
Christopher "Smitty" Smith focuses his mediation practice on complex business disputes, construction law, and catastrophic personal injury. As a partner with Hunter Maclean, Smitty serves as the leader of the firm's Transportation Group. He has tried numerous cases across the country and was nominated to the American Board of Trial Advocates in 2012. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and has been named one of Georgia Trend's Legal Elite as well as a top attorney by Savannah Magazine. He is a graduate of both Leadership Savannah and the State Bar of Georgia's Leadership Academy. With 20 years of litigation experience, Smitty has participated in more than one hundred mediations and has been a registered neutral with the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution since 2012.
Active in the community, Smitty has served on the board of the Boys & Girls Club, the Next Generation Advisory Board of Memorial Hospital, the Business Board of Employability, the Board of Leadership Savannah, as Vice President of the Live Oak Public Libraries Foundation, and as President of the Young Lawyers Division of the Savannah Bar Association. He is a graduate of the College of Williams and Mary (B.S. 1995) and the University of Georgia School of Law (J.D. 1999).
Job Titles:
- Employment - Related Disputes Are Often Highly Contentious and Emotionally Charged, yet Most Can Be Resolved With the Help of a Skilled Neutral Like Danae Woodward
Employment-related disputes are often highly contentious and emotionally charged, yet most can be resolved with the help of a skilled neutral like Danae Woodward.
John Karl Miles, III. (Jake) has worked at Miles since the firm's inception. Jake has performed nearly every role at the firm, such as, reception, scheduling and billing.
Jake graduated cum laude in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science from Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. He majored in Business Management with a concentration in Accounting. In 2017, Jake graduated from the University of South Carolina, where he received his master's in accounting. Before officially joining Miles, he worked for Grant Thornton in Atlanta. After returning to Miles in 2017, Jake was promoted to COO and CFO. In these roles, he oversees all of the financial and day-to-day operations of the firm.
James is a fully bilingual (English-Spanish) mediator and arbitrator who also maintains an active law practice.
Job Titles:
- Support Department / Regional
In 2000, having spent a decade in the courtroom, John Miles found litigation often too expensive and time-consuming for the best interests of clients. To provide a better way to resolve disputes, he formed Miles Mediation & Arbitration Services, LLC in 2000. Today with offices in Atlanta, Savannah, Charlotte, Nashville, Jacksonville, and Tampa, his company offers ADR services to attorneys and corporations nationwide and has been named the best ADR firm in Georgia for the last eight years.
John Miles has mediated over 2,000 cases in the areas of personal injury, premises liability, insurance, construction, estates, fiduciary, contracts, commercial, business, employment, and subrogation. A frequent speaker at colleges and CLE seminars, he has written extensively on mediation. His book A New Day in Court explores what motivates parties in mediation. Mr. Miles also authored the neutral training manual used at Miles.
An AV-rated (preeminent) attorney, he is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and is registered neutral with the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution. Since 2008, he has been a member of the Georgia Academy of Mediators and Arbitrators, a peer-nominated association recognizing the top 5% of mediators in Georgia.
In 2017, Mr. Miles stopped mediating full-time to become CEO of Miles Mediation & Arbitration. In addition to his executive duties, he mediates high value and complex matters on request. He is in charge of the training and development of Miles neutrals.
Job Titles:
- Accounting Department / Accounting Specialist
Job Titles:
- Marketing Department / Marketing Manager
Parag Y. Shah is an accomplished, successful and well-respected attorney, judge, neutral, and business owner. He has an established record of performing multiple functions in various roles with efficiency and excellence. Parag has been intricately involved in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution since being registered as a neutral in 2011 by the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution. Since that time, Parag has served on the Miles panel mediating complex civil and business disputes, arbitrating hospitality and commercial matters, and serving as an appointed special master by the Fulton County Superior Court. Prior to being named COO, Parag served as the firm's Practice Development Coordinator where he improved and developed operational efficiencies for the neutrals and the organization as a whole. Parag is also the co-founder and co-owner of ADR On-Demand, a virtual dispute resolution scheduling and payment platform (www.ADROnDemand.com). As a result of this diverse skillset, he now sits as the Chief Operating Officer of Miles.
Serving as COO, Parag continuously improves the quality at Miles through critical evaluation of operations and implementation of innovative ideas and new processes as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Using his unique personal and professional experience, Parag has brought Miles's focus to providing excellence for both its neutrals and clients by creating the optimal customer service experience. Parag's ultimate goal is to make Miles a national presence and implement scalable operational models. He directs and oversees multiple departments, formulates policies and manages daily operations necessary for the company's success.
Parag is of Indian descent and grew up in a small town in Arkansas working for the family's hotel business. Parag's drive, compassion, and persistence led him to become an attorney in 2006. Together with his wife, he owned and operated a small boutique law firm in midtown Atlanta. Parag represented executives, businesses and athletes in high profile and complex criminal and civil matters, including the NFL Concussion lawsuit. He also helped to recover millions of dollars in compensation for hundreds of families across the country for losses they suffered. Parag has been honored by the Daily Report, Martindale Hubbell, Super Lawyers Magazine, Georgia Trend Magazine and the Georgia Asian Pacific Bar Association for his exceptional legal talent.
Parag's experience in the legal field encompasses more than being an attorney. Parag served as a Pro Hac Judge to the City of Atlanta Municipal Court and as the 5 th District representative for the Council of Municipal Court Judges from 2016 to 2020. He regularly provided legal commentary on CNN and HLN. He has been featured on "Nancy Grace," "Crime and Justice," "Weekend Express," and NPR's "This American Life." In addition, Parag is an adjunct professor at Ohio Northern University Law School where he teaches negotiations, jury selection, depositions and cross-examination. Finally, he is the author of four Georgia reference guides published by MyCLE: The Code Criminal, The Code Civil, The Code Evidence and the Municipal Benchbook.
Parag is an alumni of Choate Rosemary Hall ('99), Rhodes College ('03), Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law ('06) and Georgia State University Robinson College of Business ('22). He is the recipient of the Norman R. Harbaugh Scholastic Achievement Award which is an annual award presented to the most outstanding management major in the MBA program based on academic achievement, the potential for leadership and service to the university and the community. He is a member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, the Atlanta Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section, the South Asian Bar Association of Georgia and the Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association. Parag is actively involved with a number of local charities including Side by Side, Nicholas House and Raksha.
Job Titles:
- Admin Fee - $200 Per Party
Miles Mediation and Arbitration will charge the parties scheduled for a mediation that cancels within ten days a cancellation fee of $500. However, mediations cancelled, rescheduled, or settled within a 24 hr. period will be charged 4 hrs. of the scheduled neutral's per party hourly rate to be billed directly to each party. Before cancelling, a different billing arrangement may be made by contacting support@milesmediation.com.
Ward Davis is a certified mediator and arbitrator in North Carolina who focuses much of his practice on various types of business and construction litigation.