Kelly A. Knight, Esq.

Kelly Knight brings a wealth of experience to his mediation practice. His career highlights include working as an insurance adjuster for a national carrier; working at a high-profile litigation boutique; opening and running his own law practice for several years handling personal injury, employment, and business matters on both the plaintiff and defense side; and practicing with The deRubertis Law Firm, a top-flight plaintiff's employment and catastrophic-injury firm. Now as a full-time mediator, he helps parties resolve matters in employment, personal injury, class action, and business matters.
A key part of Kelly's approach is to focus on helping mediation participants make better negotiation choices. According to Kelly, "So often, lawyers and parties try to do things that sabotage their own negotiations. Sometimes that's letting emotional reactions determine their conduct; sometimes that's just doing what they do because that's all they know to do. I help negotiators thoughtfully consider each move, each communication, and how that might help or hurt each side make progress toward their objective."
In one mediation, during a mediation of a wage-and-hour class action case, after the grumblings about PAGA and California's strict wage-and-hour laws were all let out, the parties got to the heart of the issue: the workers feeling disrespected by lower management. The complaints never made it up to higher management. He brought the parties together and bridged that gap--by the end of the mediation, the parties were all smiles and were looking forward to a new working relationship.
Heralded for his quick-study habits, unparalleled attention to detail and calm demeanor, Kelly strives to maintain mastery of cutting-edge issues in the law affording him a high level of competence in the subject matter. He utilizes a multitude of strategies and facilitative and evaluative approaches to help bring closure to parties engaged in civil disputes.

kknight@kknightmediation.com
(213) 223-1113
www.judicatewest.com