BACKGROUND
Steve Cerveris is a full-time independent mediator and principal of CERVERIS MEDIATION as well as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He devoted the first half of his approximately thirty-year legal career to representing Plaintiffs and Defendants as a trial attorney in various areas of litigation. The second half of his career has been exclusively devoted to providing mediation services to those involved in litigated matters. Assisting his clients through the emotionally and economically draining time-consuming challenges of litigation ultimately led him to pursue the field of alternate dispute resolution. Steve’s goal was and is to help people embroiled in litigation find a more humane, positive way to resolve conflict!
Steve is a cum laude graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and received his J.D. degree from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles where he served as both a Writer and Editor on the Loyola Law Review. His litigation career involved serving the County of Los Angeles as a Deputy Public Defender, working for several boutique business litigation and entertainment law firms and ultimately establishing his own law firm where he provided civil litigation trial services.
SERVICE IN THE FIELD OF ALTERNATE DISPUTE RESOLUTION
In addition to his professional Mediation services, Steve has also dedicated himself to furthering the field of Alternate Dispute Resolution by serving in the following capacities:
- Member of the Board of Directors of the Southern California Mediation Association (SCMA) from 2000 through 2004 where he Chaired the “Employment/Workplace” and “Courts” Committees;
- Member of the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Alternate Dispute Resolution Committee and its “Operations” and “Quality Assurance” Sub-committees from 2001 through 2011;
- -Member of the California State Bar’s Committee on Alternate Dispute Resolution from 2005 through 2009. Steve was elected to serve as the Chair of the Committee in 2009;
- Frequent speaker on Mediation, having addressed audiences at Bar Associations, Universities, Mediation Organizations, the Los Angeles Superior Court and as a Guest Lecturer at the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s Summer Law Institute at UCLA Law School;
- He regularly teaches an Advanced Mediation Training Course at the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Center for Civic Mediation.
In 2009, Steve was fortunate to pursue another career passion when he was invited to become an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles where he teaches a course on Negotiations to third-year law students.
MEDIATION CAREER ACHIEVEMENTS
Volunteer of the Year Award from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Dispute Resolution Program for his services as a volunteer mediator with the Los Angeles Superior Court;
Recognized as a California “Top Neutral” by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal;
Recognized as a Southern California “SuperLawyer” in the field of Alternate Dispute Resolution by Law & Politics and Los Angeles Magazines since 2006;
Recognized by his peers in “Best Lawyers” in America as referenced in U.S. News & World Report and the Wall Street Journal;
AV Rating from Martindale & Hubbell;
Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators.
Steve offers his mediation services in a beautifully renovated two-story office building in the Burbank Media District along with his colleague and fellow-mediator, Gig Kyriacou. Together they have created an outstanding, incredibly comfortable and unique atmosphere particularly conducive to their style of dispute resolution. Steve’s patience, persistence, humor and excellent communication skills continue to contribute to his success and effectiveness as one of California’s “Top Neutrals.”
Click here to download the resume (PDF).
