For many years, insurers have promoted the benefits of mediation as a means of resolving disputes between a design firm and its clients. We recently surveyed senior professionals at 250 design firms and found that no fewer than 40% of respondents who had used mediation to resolve a dispute considered the outcome unsuccessful. Is our confidence in mediation misplaced? Have we oversold its benefits? I don’t believe so. Having seen thousands of design professionals looking down the barrel of professional liability claims, I can attest that the vast majority of disputants who go to mediation ultimately achieve a settlement. The