From eight offices in Florida and Alabama, Upchurch Watson White & Max has become a top mediation firm nationally, known for effectively and efficiently facilitating agreements to resolve complex and routine issues alike. Our Supreme Court certified at...

Legal

Upchurch Watson White & Max

Principals

Thirty years ago, Scott R. Schomber began his career as a civil trial lawyer, practicing in state and federal courts throughout Florida. Over that time, Scott’s practice has focused on personal injury and wrongful death claims arising out of premise liability, slip and fall, negligent security, automobile accidents, trucking accidents, medical malpractice, and product liability cases.

Scott has also had significant experience in first party insurance claims, coverage disputes, commercial litigation, and commercial landlord-tenant disputes.  In addition, Scott has served as in-house counsel for one of South Florida’s Premier real estate and hospitality companies.  Scott’s unique background as an advocate for individuals, insurance carriers, and businesses allows him to understand and respect the viewpoints of all parties at the mediation table.

Raised in South Florida. Scott is a lifelong Floridian. He received his Juris Doctor degree at the University of Florida. Scott is an avid fisherman and diver. He has “an exceptional wife and two wonderful sons,” all of whom share their love for South Florida and all it has to offer.

Scott R. Schomber

A founding partner of Upchurch Watson White and Max, Terry White has conducted well over 4,000 mediated conferences throughout the state. He participated by invitation in The Harvard University Initial Advanced Negotiation Techniques Program with thirty negotiators from around the world, and was requested to lecture at the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court Judges Conference, as well as the Georgia Superior Court Judges Conference. He is often invited to lecture at both plaintiff and defense legal conferences.

Mr. White completed the Florida Supreme Court "Train the Trainer" Program and studied Litigation Risk Analysis with Marc Victor of [Stanford University](/org/stanford). He has a broad range of experience in specialized areas dealing with complex and multi-party issues, and approaches each case with an unrivaled energy, insight and a highly respected good nature mixed with an appropriate measure of humor.

Terrence M. White

Michael Walls became a certified mediator / arbitrator in 1995 and joined the Upchurch Watson White & Max Mediation Group in January 2004. Mike has successfully mediated in excess of 3,500 cases in the state and federal courts.

Mike's litigation practice included the representation of  both plaintiffs and defendants in civil matters, as well as extensive experience with insurance coverage issues. Prior to entering private practice, Mike worked in various capacities within the insurance claims industry.

Mike's work in the ADR field has been favorably recognized in the "Best Lawyer" publications for Birmingham and nationally, as well. He  is a Fellow in the Alabama Academy of Attorney Mediators and is AV rated with Martindale Hubbell.

Michael B. Walls

Rodney A. Max has led more than 5,000 mediations arising from more than 12,000 cases for matters including wrongful death, personal injury, breach of contract, insurance disputes, antitrust, mass and class action issues involving products and services in all consumer areas, patent and trademark infringement, employment cases, family and decedent estate issues, fraud and negligence, health and general commercial liability insurance coverage cases and more. He has practiced since 1975, including representation of plaintiffs and defendants in breach of contract, fraud, commercial products liability, lender liability, mass and class actions and other statutory remedies.

Mr. Max has been selected and/or court appointed as a third party neutral or mediator in a number of significant state and federal mass and class actions involving personal injury, wrongful death and property damage claims. These claims have involved products, services, and/or consumer rights (e.g., privacy). The mass and class actions have encompassed areas of insurance, pharmaceuticals, transportation, environmental, computer, cell phones, and other technological issues.

He is a noted speaker on mediation and alternative dispute resolution topics, delivering his message to organizations throughout the country, including national and state bar associations and sections ~ on both sides of the trial aisle, as well as neutral groups. Among his published works: "Multiparty Mediation", The American Journal of Trial Advocacy (volume 23, Issue 2, Fall 1999) and "Mediation: The Humanization of the Justice System Resulting in the Truest Equities Among the Parties" (The Alabama Defense Lawyer Journal, 1999). Mr. Max also has presented seminars on a number of his written articles, including  "Designing the Mediation",  "Goal Oriented Approach to Negotiations" and "Breaking Impasse".

Rodney A. Max

Charlie Trippe employs the skills, judgment and knowledge he developed as a senior government and corporate lawyer, and as a national and regional firm litigation partner, in the resolution of difficult and high-value disputes.

Charlie brings deep experience in the transportation industry, government, and private law practice to the table. During his career, he has developed both sophisticated litigation judgment and practical insight into how to resolve disputes flexibly and pragmatically.

He is admitted to practice in Florida, New York and Massachusetts. Some of his career milestones are service as the chief counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration; senior in-house attorney with CSX Transportation, Inc., one of the country’s largest freight railroads; general counsel to Florida Governor Rick Scott; and general counsel to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. He was also a litigation partner in the New York office of Jones Day, one of the nation’s leading law firms.

In private practice in Jacksonville, Florida, as a partner of Moseley Prichard Parrish Knight and Jones, from 2001 to 2011 and 2012 to 2017, Charlie focused on complex and high-risk civil litigation, representing business clients, including major corporations as well as entrepreneurs, with an emphasis on transportation matters.

Charles M. Trippe

Upon graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law, Philip
joined a small firm and practiced law for 15 years, focusing on litigation,
before being elected as Circuit Judge in Lawrence County, Ala., in 1988. He
served as Presiding Circuit Judge for over 20 years and was elected as a
member of the Alabama Circuit Judges Association Board of Directors and
served as President of the Alabama Circuit Judges Association in 2008-
2009. Philip presided over more than 25,000 cases, including over 500 jury
trials.

When he left the bench in 2009, Philip began practicing as a registered
mediator with the State of Alabama. He has since mediated civil, domestic
and appellate cases involving partnerships, corporations, construction
claims, real estate disputes, estate and will contests, products liability,
personal injury, workers' compensation, original divorce actions, petitions
for modifications, and contempt.

Philip also worked for the Chancellor of The University of Alabama System
from 2012 until 2016 as Executive Assistant, Director of Special Programs
and Deputy General Counsel. He has served as an adjunct professor in the
University of Alabama Honors College (2010-2020) and has previously
served as a Visiting Lecturer in Law at the University of Alabama School of
Law.

A. Philip Reich II

In his private practice, Joe Dawson excelled both as a trial and appellate attorney, appearing before the Florida Supreme Court; the United States Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit; the Third, Fourth and Fifth District Court of Appeals, as well as trials in the 11th and 11th, 15th and 17th Judicial Circuits in Florida and the United States District Court, Southern District.

As a young man, Joe used acting in plays and sports radio play-by-play to hone communication skills in preparation to be a trial lawyer.

When litigating, he was known for his aggressive style and thorough preparation, and Joe’s practice evolved from a mixture of criminal law and personal injury matters to a practice focused primarily on first-party insurance litigation, bad faith insurance practices and personal injury matters. He puts equal energy into his mediations, working for the benefit of all of the parties.

Joseph R. Dawson

Kent Sands has been representing both plaintiffs and defendants in private practice for the better part of three decades, and he now brings that experience to bear as a full-time mediator and arbitrator.  Over the course of his legal career, he litigated personal injury and complex financial crime cases in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels.  His practice was focused on torts involving medical negligence and product liability and insurance-related claims, as well as criminal litigation involving financial offenses such as tax and securities fraud, all of which typically involved complex issues and protracted litigation.  His goal as a mediator is to help parties get to the crux of their disputes to avoid the time, expense and uncertainty of litigation.  As he has done throughout his legal career, he will take the time to understand all parties’ unique circumstances and goals, and then he will tirelessly advocate for an equitable resolution.

Kent is a native of Central Florida. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1982 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985. He spent his early career representing clients of large corporate firms in New York City and South Florida and then served as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice in Washington before moving back to Central Florida in 1994 to resume private practice.

Kenton V. Sands

A. Philip Reich

Steve Sands began his legal career more than 35 years ago when he joined the law firm of Akerman Senterfitt and Eidson handling commercial litigation.   Steve joined the Fourth Circuit State Attorney Office handling felony prosecutions before returning to Volusia County to practice personal injury work and was the managing partner of Sands, White & Sands, P.A for the last 20 years.     Steve’s breadth of experience spans commercial and personal injury litigation, including Medical Negligence. 

In joining UWWM, Steve has completed his transition from litigator to full time dispute resolution.  He is fulfilling a long-held goal of helping parties settle differences in a compassionate, personalized manner. He plans to use his extensive experience in that pursuit.

He has regularly handled cases involving automobile, motorcycle, and trucking collisions; medical negligence, plaintiffs’ personal injury, wrongful death; pharmaceutical litigation; nursing home negligence/abuse; and commercial disputes.

Steven L. Sands

For more than five years, Mark Haskins, a Certified Circuit-Civil Mediator, has developed a reputation for engaging even the most reluctant parties and helping them actively participate in the mediation process to achieve reasonable resolutions.

He brings this quality with him to his full-time neutral practice with Upchurch Watson White & Max, along with more than 32 years of civil litigation experience as both plaintiff and defense counsel on Florida’s Southwest Gulf Coast Region in areas such as personal injury, complex medical malpractice, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, premises liability and commercial cases.

This extensive experience allows him to quickly identify materially relevant issues and understand how cases are evaluated on both sides, regardless of size and complexity.

Mark A. Haskins

Lawrence M. Watson is a mediator and principal at [Upchurch Watson White & Max](/org/upchurch-watson-white-max-mediation-group). Lawrence has been working in the field of mediation since 1995 and was an Emeritus Fellow at the American College of Civil Trial Mediators from 1995 to 2011.

Lawrence M. Watson has a JD from the University of Florida College of Law.

and Barry L. Davis - Mediator & Arbitrator reports to Lawrence M. Watson.

Lawrence M. Watson

Barry’s experience at being a results-oriented mediator comes from decades of having litigated and serving as lead trial counsel to both plaintiffs and defendants in hundreds of high-profile personal injury and wrongful death matters, complex construction and commercial disputes, insurance coverage and bad faith cases, and negligent security lawsuits. He recently devised and negotiated a very creative $103.5M settlement involving more than 40 parties and insurers in the mass tort FIU Bridge Collapse litigation, where he served as lead counsel for the bridge designer.

Barry has been a Florida Bar Board Certified Civil Trial lawyer since 1989, was elected by his peers as a Super Lawyer and holds a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating. He began his own law firm with a few partners more than 25 years ago and served as its managing partner while it grew to 30 lawyers. It was eventually acquired by an international law firm where he continued to serve as managing partner. For more than 20 years, Barry was also outside general counsel and on the Board of Directors of a major multinational construction company. As an adjunct professor of law for several years, Barry taught classes in settlement negotiation and products liability.

Barry L. Davis

Mr. Upchurch was elected as the youngest Circuit Judge in Florida history in 1976, serving as Chief Judge of the 7th Judicial Circuit beginning in 1979. He received the "Most Outstanding Jurist" award from The Florida Bar in 1981. He was appointed by the Supreme Court of Florida as a charter member of the Supreme Court Committee on Mediation and Arbitration in 1989 and to the Panel of Distinguished Neutrals of the Center for Public Resources in 1993. In 2005, he was selected for membership in the Academy of Court Appointed Masters, the only national organization for special masters. He was inducted by The International Who's Who of Commercial Mediation in 2012.

Following his service on the bench, Mr. Upchurch served as president and managing partner of Cobb Cole & Bell of Daytona Beach, before founding the mediation firm [Upchurch Watson White & Max](/org/upchurch-watson-white-max-mediation-group) in 1996.

John J. Upchurch

Ms. Sands has been litigating or mediating cases since 1983. She is a former managing partner with her father, Larry Sands, in the civil litigation firm of Sands, White & Sands, PA. Since 2001, she has mediated a broad range of civil disputes, including but not limited to Employment Disputes, FLSA, Discrimination, Whistleblower, FCA, SLAPP, First and Third Party Insurance Disputes, Bad Faith, FDUTPA, Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Breach of Contract, Commercial Disputes, Medical and Professional Negligence, Products Liability, Trusts and Estates, Construction, Real Property, and HOA Homeowner and/or Developer Disputes. Her experience includes complex, multi-party litigation, including Multi-District Litigation, and Class Action Disputes.  She has worked with clients with local, national and international interests.

She is currently a Principal in the ADR Firm of [Upchurch Watson White & Max](/org/upchurch-watson-white-max-mediation-group). She has a B.A. from [University of Pennsylvania](/org/university-of-pennsylvania), cum laude, (1980) and a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law (1983). She’s certified by Florida’s Supreme Court as a Civil Circuit Court Mediator and Appellate Mediator; approved Appellate Mediator by the Fifth District Court of Appeal, State of Florida; and certified as a mediator in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida. Among other associations, she is a Member of the Windstorm Insurance Network, the Florida Justice Association, and The National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. She is a frequent lecturer and consultant on issues relevant to Alternative Dispute Resolution, Mediation, Arbitration, Civil Litigation, and Effective Negotiation. Her clients have described her as exceptionally informed, prepared, persistent, insightful, and creative in identifying the issues and opportunities for a successful resolution of even the most difficult or complex claims and clients.

Ms. Sands has provided ADR services throughout Florida and the Southeast United States. She is available for mediation in most Florida locations. Additional travel expenses may apply to locations in the Florida Panhandle and the greater Naples and Fort Myers area or outside Florida; call Cathy McCleary at 1-800-863-1462, or email cmccleary@uww-adr.com for scheduling and rates.

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