Workplace Mediation
Morale and productivity suffer when employees are not getting along in the workplace. Dee provides a structured facilitated dialogue process that helps people work through their differences. Participants feel safe, have the opportunity to be heard and learn new ways of communicating. Dee’s decades of experience as a counselor combined with her experience as an employment lawyer informs her methods that helps people talk and resolve issues without having to resort to complaints, lawyers or other advocates. Her extensive experience with issues in the workplace ranges from disputes between co-workers, to teams that cannot get along, to union/management issues, to difficulties between managers. As a dispute resolution advisor to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), she deals with employee issues so the employees can deal with the survivors, as a special education mediator, she helps special education teachers and school districts negotiate with parents for the best education for their children with special needs. And as an organizational consultant to the University of Washington, she helps employees in all aspects of the institution deal with the issues that threaten to divide them.
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HOA/Neighbor/Landlord Tenant Disputes
Having a dispute with your landlord, your neighbor or your Homeowners Association (HOA) is stressful and goes against any basic desire to enjoy a sense of peace where you live. Although Homeowners Association strive to keep the peace by coming up with rules and guidelines by which all homeowners agree to abide, it’s not always that simple. HOA conflicts frequently arise between neighbors, between the board and community members and sometimes between board members themselves. Dee Knapp has extensive experience helping people get along who live in proximity to each other or are in a rental housing situation. As an attorney she understands the law that governs such situations.
Dee’s past successes include facilitated discussions with HOA Board members and community members that resulted in dissolving the tension in board meetings, facilitated discussions between neighbors that resulted in better understanding and communication, conflict coaching that resulted in a better understanding of options a neighbor faced and tenant/landlord mediation that resulted in agreements over lease terms and deposits. |
Business/Partnership Dispute Resolution
From disagreements over the direction and management of a business, to conflicts over Covid impacts, we can help you resolve whatever is impeding morale, productivity or the future of the business. Dee’s representative past successes with businesses include helping a group of doctors through issues that have threatened their partnership, helping a family business survive sibling rivalry that threatened the business’s future, helping a co-operative find consensus, and helping non-profit organizations deal with Board and staff issues.
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Diversity Equity Inclusion
A perfect match for your needs, Dee Knapp partners with DeMarche consulting and Patricia Davis to provide training, policy and strategy development in diversity equity and inclusion. Patricia and Dee get at the heart of exploring the issues of power, privilege, and perspective by getting teams comfortable with discomfort in a safe and grace-filled space. Dee also strives to provide all of her services through a DEI lens. At a client’s request she will build a team to address unique DEI challenges be they with LBGTQ+, physically disabled, race or other marginalized communities.
Dee’s past successes include designing and delivering a curriculum module on race and power awareness at Seattle University School of Law and delivering race and power modules for the Dispute Resolution Center of King County’s Basic Mediation Training. She has also mediated hundreds of discrimination cases for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Postal Service involving race, national origin, gender, disability and other protected classes. |
Employment Discrimination
Employees are entitled to equal employment opportunities under the law regardless of race, gender, sex, national origin, religion, disability, pregnancy status or in some cases marital status. Dee’s background as an employment attorney for a government agency and later a contracted mediator with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), gives her the expertise to quickly get at the heart of the matter and empower the parties to find a reasonable resolution. Dee has resolved hundreds of EEO disputes not only for the EEOC, but also for the U.S. Postal Service, and other state and local agencies.
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Mediation of Legal and Litigated Disputes
Mediation is a cheaper, faster, alternative to continued litigation. As an attorney, Dee Knapp is deeply familiar with the stages of litigation and the costs to the parties. From creative terms to six figure settlements, she has mediated cases that saved both sides the costs of protracted litigation and appeals amounting to millions of dollars.
Dee has resolved cases involving things such as attorney’s fees, unpaid personal loans, personal injury and property damage, employment discrimination, consumer protection, and landlord-tenant issues among others. |
“Some mediators get bogged down in the morning sessions but Dee Knapp got straight to the point. She was able to shepherd the parties through sensitive issues and to resolution. I recommend Accord & Collaboration Dispute Resolution Services for anyone seeking expedient, efficient mediation.”
— Bob Donovan, Attorney at Law
— Bob Donovan, Attorney at Law
When you’re ready to get started, call us at (206) 367-1994 or contact us to let us know how we can help you.