Mediation & Neutral Dispute Resolution
Polaris Resolution is the mediation practice of Jason Elster, a commercial and intellectual-property litigator of twenty years now serving as a neutral. Perspective is the point: I am a mediator who knows how cases get resolved and can help the parties get there sooner, and for a fraction of what the fight would otherwise cost.
Why you want a neutral who has tried these cases
Twenty years across the table in commercial and IP disputes teaches one thing above the rest: the parties almost always end up somewhere a good mediator could have reached in an afternoon, after months of motions and a legal bill that dwarfs the gap between them. The courthouse is a slow, expensive way to arrive at a number both sides could see coming.
Polaris Resolution exists to shorten that road. Not by splitting the difference and calling it peace, but by pressure-testing each side's case the way opposing counsel eventually will, and finding the resolution that holds once the adrenaline wears off.
Case valuations grounded in how these disputes actually resolve, not in wishful arithmetic. Both sides get a candid read on where a trial would likely land.
As an advocate, I took positions. As a mediator, I help to generate options and let the parties own the outcome.
How disputes actually work
Everyone is the hero of their own story. Almost no one thinks they're the villain.
Most disputes are viewed as a fight over facts. More often they are a collision of two narratives, each internally consistent, each starring a reasonable person who was wronged. Treat it as a pure fact-fight and you argue past the actual disagreement for months.
The work we do in mediation is to surface both stories honestly, find the seam where they can coexist, and build a resolution each side can use to move past the dispute. That is a different skill than winning, and it is the one this practice is built around.
Where this practice works
Contract and partnership breakdowns, business divorces, shareholder and buy-sell conflicts, and the disputes that arise when a deal stops working for one side.
Trademark and brand conflicts, licensing and ownership disputes, and infringement matters where both sides have real business riding on the outcome and neither wants a public trial.
Multi-party and high-stakes civil disputes that benefit from a neutral who can hold the whole board in view and keep the parties out of a secondary fight.
Real-property disagreements and the transfer of wealth, where long-held expectations and family relationships are often as much at stake as the assets, resolved privately rather than in open court.
Matters mediated before anyone files, while positions are still forming and legal spend is low, to settle the dispute and often preserve the relationship before it hardens into a lawsuit.
Send a brief description of the dispute and the parties involved. If mediation fits, we'll find a date. If it doesn't, I'll say so.
Request a Mediation