Church Church Hittle + Antrim has an established and highly skilled Mediation practice group focusing on providing high quality, competitively priced Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services. Our Mediation team believes in Mediation/ADR and is willing to serve as neutral facilitators to help you resolve your cases quickly, professionally, and with an outcome you will be satisfied with. Experienced mediation attorneys tailor their skills and experience to your situation and offer a variety of highly qualified individuals ready to serve you.

Contact us to schedule your mediation at our any of our seven locations.

Mediation Services

Pursuant to the Indiana Rules for Alternative Dispute Resolution, a range of ADR options are available. We can assist you in any of the following areas:

Mediation

Mediation is an informal and non-adversarial process by which the Mediator assists the disputing parties in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement. We have a number of qualified Mediators ready to assist you.

Arbitration

Arbitration is a process in which a neutral third person or a panel designated by the parties, considers the facts and arguments presented by the parties and renders a decision. The decision may be binding or non-binding. Talk to us about how Arbitration can successfully resolve your disputes.

Mini-trials

A mini-trial is a settlement process in which each side presents a highly abbreviated summary of its case to “senior officials” who are authorized to settle the case. We have the experienced individuals to assist you in your Mini-trial.

Summary Jury Trials

A summary jury trial is an abbreviated trial with a jury in which the litigants present their evidence expeditiously. The parties and the jury are guided by a neutral serving in the capacity of presiding judge. Let us explain how this ADR method can save you time and money and get your case resolved.

Private Judges

This is a process in which the litigants agree to employ a private judge to resolve a pending lawsuit. The private judge must be a former judge. This process can be utilized to resolve cases founded upon contract or tort law. Experience does matter and we have the experience that will make the difference.

Optional Early Mediation

ADR Rule 8 allows parties to voluntarily resolve their disputes prior to initiating litigation. Find out more about this early resolution opportunity by contacting us.

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Meet the Mediation Team

Steven David

After 40 years as a lawyer, 28 years as a Military Lawyer and Military Leader, 16 years as a trial court judge, 12 years as a Supreme Court Justice, and 6 years in Corporate Practice, Steve understands the challenges that litigation brings and is prepared to assist you in finding mutually acceptable solutions efficiently and professionally. Steve has presided over more than 30,000 cases as a trial judge and represented thousands of clients in all types of cases. His experience can make a difference in your case.

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Leslie Craig Henderzahs

Leslie is a skilled civil litigator and is a certified family law specialist as certified by the Family Law Certification Board and holds an ICLEF Family Law Mediator Certification, allowing her to be appointed by Indiana judges to conduct family law mediations.

Leslie serves on the Indiana Supreme Court Innovation Initiative Task Force. In her litigation practice, she focuses on the complexities of preserving and dividing businesses, farms, and other sizable assets of self-employed and high net worth individuals including the intricacies of pension and retirement plans and executive compensation packages involving deferred income such as stock unit awards, restricted stock, and stock options. Additionally, she enjoys helping clients with interstate custody and jurisdiction issues. In 2017, Leslie was a candidate and semi-finalist in the Judicial Nominating Commission’s interviews to select the 110th Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court.

Leslie's professional involvement includes the Indiana State Bar Association where she currently serves as Past-President and President in 2020 leading the organization's almost 10,000 attorneys. Additionally, Leslie has been a Board Member of the Indiana Bar Foundation, an Ex Officio member of the Indiana University McKinney School of Law Board of Visitors, an executive member of the Hamilton County Bar Association and President from 2012 to 2014, a board member to the Noblesville Boys and Girls Club, and the Hanover College Parent's Board. She currently serves on the Noblesville Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee and Board, and the Riverview Hospital Health Foundation.

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Kevin Vanderground

Kevin joined Church Church Hittle + Antrim in July 2014. He began his professional career as a high school economics teacher and basketball coach before attending law school at Valparaiso University School of Law. Kevin has had the distinction of being named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine (2014 through 2017) and an Up and Coming Lawyer by Indiana Lawyer Magazine (2008).

Kevin volunteers his time with Faith Community Foundation and has successfully started and sold several businesses in the region.

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Kevin Smith

Kevin joined the firm in June 2016 after serving Hoosiers for more than a decade as both the Clerk of the Indiana Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court, and Supreme Court Administrator, managing 28 employees and gaining invaluable insight into the inner workings of Indiana’s Judicial Branch and its three highest courts. He also worked extensively on interpretations of and revisions to the Indiana Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Indiana Admission and Discipline Rules, and the Indiana Administrative Rules; led a multi-discipline team of public and private practitioners, court staff, and IT professionals in planning and implementing Indiana’s appellate e-filing initiative; taught numerous seminars on appellate procedure; and oversaw the Supreme Court’s legal and administrative caseload of approximately 1,000 matters per year and its transition from paper to electronic records.

Kevin is a Registered Indiana Civil Mediator and is presently engaged in an extensive alternative dispute training program overseen by the Institute for Christian Conciliation to become a Certified Christian Conciliator™. Additionally, Kevin incorporates his prior private sector and governmental legal experiences into his practice at CCHA, specializing in labor and employment law, appellate litigation, and general trial litigation.

Kevin graduated from the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana, with high distinction, finishing in the top 2% of his class of 200. While in law school he served as President of the school’s Christian Legal Society chapter and as an Editor on the Indiana Law Journal and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.

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Amy Matthews

As a partner in the Education Law Group of Church Church Hittle + Antrim, Amy represents schools and other educational entities in various matters such as bargaining/labor relations, human resources, policy analysis, fiscal management, and special education. Aside from her school law practice, she provides mediation services for civil and family law cases and has been trained by the CIACP in Collaborative Practice.

Prior to joining CCHA, Amy was General Counsel for the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board (IEERB), where she spent much of her time successfully mediating unfair labor practice complaints and implementing the 2011 revisions to the teacher bargaining statute, Indiana Code 20-29. Amy previously served as the Dispute Resolution Director for the Indiana State Personnel Department. She represented state managers as lead advocate in various proceedings including negotiations, mediations, and arbitrations, and regularly advised other State advocates, managers, and employees on matters of policy and procedure.

Amy completed her J.D. from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in the top 5% of her class. As a member of the law school community, she served as an Associate Justice for the Moot Court Board, a tutor for the Dean’s Tutorial Society, and a mentor for the Reach for Youth Teen Court.

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Libby Roberts

Libby represents businesses and public entities at all levels of administrative proceedings and litigation. Her clients include school districts, colleges and universities, counties, cities, towns, and police and fire departments. She has appeared before the EEOC, Indiana Civil Rights Commission, and Office of Civil Rights. She has represented clients in nearly all of Indiana's 92 counties, as well as before the Indiana Court of Appeals, the Indiana Supreme Court, and the United State Supreme Court. Libby works directly with schools, colleges and universities, municipalities, and businesses, and also works with insurance carriers and claims administrators to serve as insurance defense counsel.

Libby has substantial experience in defending personal injury, wrongful death, and civil rights claims filed against public entities, public employees, and elected officials.

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Hannah Gahimer

Hannah advises clients on various matters including issues related to employment litigation, school law, and family law. She is an active Education Law Association (ELA) member and has presented at the ELA annual conference multiple times. Hannah volunteers for the We the People program and serves as an alumni mentor at the University of Dayton.

Hannah obtained her Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Dayton, where she also studied human rights. She attended Indiana University, Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. There, she volunteered for Outreach for Legal Literacy, serving as Treasurer for the organization, and was active on the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality as a Managing Editor.

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Eric Douthit

As a partner in the firm’s Business Practice Section, Eric advises clients on a variety of corporate and commercial matters, with an emphasis on emerging business creation, business mergers and acquisitions, real estate and zoning, and general corporate and business counseling.

A large part of Eric’s practice is dedicated to assisting business clients from small, family-owned businesses, to multi-million dollar organizations in acquiring private or traditional financing and other commercial and business transactions and contract negotiations of all types, organizations, and restructuring, dissolutions, shareholder agreements, succession planning, and ownership structures. His clients touch a variety of industries, including agriculture, health care, software development, automobile dealers, transportation and logistics, real estate development, and hoteliers.

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Douglas Church

Doug concentrates his practice on civil litigation, mediation, and municipal law, including representation of municipal corporations. He served as Town Attorney for the Town of Fishers from 1980 to 2015 and was City Attorney for Noblesville from 1988 to 1996. He is routinely involved in civil litigation matters before the courts of general jurisdiction throughout the State of Indiana as well as the United States District Courts.

Since the advent of mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, Doug has been routinely selected to serve as a mediator by parties and judges throughout Indiana. In both bench and jury trials, Doug has dealt with a wide variety of legal issues from complex commercial litigation to personal injury and medical malpractice matters to family and estate disputes. His extensive experience in litigation resulted in his induction into the American Board of Trial Advocates with the rank of Advocate.

Doug has been very active in organized bar associations and has served as president of the Hamilton County Bar Association, president of the Indiana State Bar Association, president of the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum, member of the Board of Directors of the Indiana Bar Foundation and member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association.

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Emily Schmale

Emily graduated from IU McKinney School of Law with a J.D. in 2016. During her time at McKinney, she served as Vice President of the Saint Thomas More Society and wrote for the Indiana Law Review. Emily has also completed the ICLEF Family Law Mediation Certification course.

At CCHA Law, Emily concentrates her practice on family law, which paired with a background in business litigation, equips her to meet client needs ranging from custody arrangements to complex disputed asset division. She also practices in the area of criminal defense and has experience assisting clients with a wide variety of criminal matters, including white collar crimes. She is a member of the Indiana and Indianapolis Bar Associations, and is admitted to practice before Indiana state courts as well as the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana.

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Mediation Benefits

Guided by the right Mediator, you and your client can reach a mutually acceptable solution that will save time, money, the uncertainty of litigation, and the emotional strain of the legal process. For more information on the areas of practice involved in an ADR undertaking and assessing which form of ADR will be best suited to your case, contact Steven David for assistance.

Contact the Mediation Attorneys at CCHA

To establish dates for your preferred Mediation or ADR option, contact Camilla Scott, our Mediation and ADR Practice Group administrator, who has access to the calendars of the participating group members. We are ready, willing, and able to collaborate with attorneys on your Mediation or Alternative Dispute Resolution option.