As a former litigator, I mediate business disputes, ranging from closely-held “business divorces” to large complex controversies, nationwide.
I am known as a connector of people, concepts, and ideas. While every proceeding deserves appropriate structure and decorum, my approachability and relaxed demeanor create an environment that promotes accessibility to all participants, regardless of their level of sophistication or experience.
I am a full-time neutral. I serve as a mediator and arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) on its commercial, health care, and consumer rosters, nationwide. Additionally, I serve as a Judge Pro Tempore on the Maricopa County (Arizona) Superior Court, conducting settlement conferences in civil, commercial, probate, and tax matters. I am also on the Arizona Association of Realtors neutral roster.
While I am licensed to practice law in Arizona and Pennsylvania, I am now a non-practicing attorney by choice. In early 2025, I dissolved my boutique litigation firm and formed a new entity, Tricia Schafer Dispute Resolution PLLC, to focus exclusively on neutral work.
I majored in economics in college, and clerked for an arbitrator in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1990s. After law school, I became a staff attorney for a labor union, where I represented employees and/or the union in dozens of arbitrations throughout the state of New York (1994-1997). Upon moving to Arizona, I shifted to management-side labor and employment law (1998-2004), as well as commercial litigation (2005-2025). My commercial litigation practice included disputes involving real estate, finance, securities fraud, health care, employment, and business dissolution controversies.
From 1998-2011, I worked at small litigation firms and multidisciplinary mid-sized law firms in the Phoenix metropolitan area. In 2011, I founded my own law practice, which evolved into a successful three-attorney firm. We represented businesses and individuals in real estate, finance, securities fraud, health care, employment, renewable energy, and business dissolution matters.
In 2021, with dozens of arbitrations under my belt as an advocate, I was invited to join the American Arbitration Association neutral roster as a mediator and arbitrator. For my mediation training, I intentionally chose curricula that offered a variety of perspectives. I completed 40-hour courses with the Center for Conflict Resolution (“CCR”) in 2020, the American Institute of Mediation (“AIM”) in 2021, and the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law (“Straus”) in 2024. CCR focused on disputes involving unrepresented parties, Straus emphasized mediation theory, and AIM delivered highly practical takeaways for mediating business disputes in which all parties are represented by counsel.
From 2021-2024, I balanced my arbitrations and mediations with litigation. Although I stopped litigating in 2025, I remain an active contributor to the Arizona legal community, as an attendee, presenter, author, and program chair of a variety of continuing-education seminars and publications.
31 years as an advocate (and, since 2021, as a neutral) on all sides of large and complex cases and commercial matters, including, but not limited to:
Technology/AI
Renewable energy
Real estate
Labor/employment (both employees and employers)
Contracts
Intellectual property
Licensing
Business torts
Finance/Securities
Agency
Fraud (common-law and securities fraud)
Insurance
Healthcare (payor/provider, pharmaceutical, data privacy)
Representative Matters:
Co-developer dispute involving utility-scale renewable energy projects.
Medical partnership dispute over ownership of ambulatory surgery center, including interests in real estate, distributions, and return of capital.
Residential developer dispute with homebuilders regarding construction timing and critical path.
Receivership arising out of investor’s dispute with residential and commercial developers.
Disputes between entities and departing professionals in law firms/medical practices/fitness industry.
Asset purchase agreement disputes, including sale of medical practice and sale of laundromat business.
Healthcare payment and reimbursement disputes across multiple specialties, most recently involving gastroenterology, podiatry, ophthalmology, oral/maxillofacial surgery, and addiction treatment.
Dispute between international corporation and family-owned manufacturer regarding exclusivity and intellectual property rights.
Insurance claim by former public official regarding whether malfeasance occurred in course and scope of duties.
Franchise disputes involving national restaurant chain and hospitality chain.
Small business and partnership/shareholder disputes, including “business divorce” and the unwinding of financial obligations and sale/distribution of jointly-held assets.
Disputes between homeowners associations and individual unit owners, as well as third-party contractors.
Wage/hour and regulatory compliance issues involving an international transportation provider.
Contract dispute between technology provider and construction contractor regarding IT services and construction-industry software.
Employment discrimination matters within financial institutions.
Early career (1994-1997): labor union staff attorney, representing public sector professional, scientific, and technical services employees (e.g., doctors, nurses, pharmacists, engineers) throughout the State of New York.
“Disarming” and “relational” are among the descriptors that colleagues and participants have shared over the years to describe my mediation style. As an active member of the legal community, I am known for connecting people and concepts to create outcomes that transcend the sum of their parts.
My evaluative method is derived from decades as a commercial litigator and my degree in economics. My approachable demeanor, honed over two decades of involvement in the lawyer wellness space, facilitates connections, puts people at ease, and builds trust.
As the former program director for a nationally-renowned negotiation training institute, I recognize bargaining tactics, patterns, and strategies, and leverage these and other nuances to empower mediation participants to resolve disputes.
My oral and written communications with each participant’s representative prior to mediation day empower everyone with knowledge about what to expect and the sequence of the conversation. I strive to minimize downtime in mediations by giving parties tasks or specific topics to consider when I am engaging with counterparties.
I don’t give up easily. While I am efficient and respectful of everyone’s time, I am committed to facilitating the exploration of all potential avenues for settlement. Sometimes that means exceeding the scheduled duration of our session. I have the stamina for the long hours that are at times needed to properly negotiate and document a deal. I strongly encourage the participants and their representatives to share that commitment, as long as our time together remains productive.
Georgetown University Law Center, JD 1994.
University of California – Berkeley, BA Economics 1991.
$435/hour.
No travel fees.
Participants will reimburse travel expenses (e.g., flight, hotel, ground transportation).
No cancellation fees, except under the following limited circumstances: $1,000 fee if cancellation occurs after mediator has undertaken travel to a mediation outside the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. (E.g., if mediation is scheduled for Tuesday, and mediator boards an airplane on Monday to travel to the mediation and is informed mid-flight or upon arrival that the parties wish to cancel, $1000 fee is imposed).
