Resolution Remedies

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Formidable, successful, serious-minded, principled, and business savvy are a few of the descriptions about Santa Rosa attorney Clay Clement that come immediately to mind.  Primarily a business trial lawyer, he has tried over 125 cases before state courts in 18 California counties, federal districts and bankruptcy courts, and before arbitrators, assessment appeals boards, and state administrative agencies.

With a CEO’s air of no-nonsense bearing, Clement says, “I know a lot about how things work in business and what makes enterprises successful.  My business expertise is extremely helpful in mediation, because, quite frankly, even the participants frequently don’t know the breadth and scope of what’s involved.  I perceive my role in mediation as one who readily identifies the business objectives, separating them clearly from the highly charged emotional aspects.  This is vital, because you can proceed effectively only when people attain a clear understanding of all the components being discussed.”

Clement says the best mediations he has observed are the ones where the people can be figured out – grasp what they want, what they think they want, and how to help them toward resolution.  How to identify what’s at stake, he says, and how to achieve it are the starting points for successful mediation.

“Sometimes,” adds the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law graduate, “people get wrongly fixated on only one part of a much bigger problem.  My role is to help them to see all the parts and how to give up a less important aspect to achieve a core goal.  Sometimes there is an impossible gulf of perception, so the participants need to do some discovery to find out what the facts are. Afterwards, the parties may still be in conflict, but at least they are proceeding with the same information.  I work very hard toward balanced settlement – I think it’s a bad ending where one side is jumping for joy and the other is down in the dumps.”

BACKGROUND

Clayton Clement is the senior partner of Clement, Fitzpatrick & Kenworthy, and one of the preeminent business litigators in the North Bay. He has broad business litigation experience, including cases involving real estate, oil and gas, contract, professional liability and unfair business practice. Mr. Clement has handled billion-dollar disputes over the value of geothermal properties, refineries, large apartment houses, shopping centers, residential property, ranches, development property and commercial property. He has represented wineries, grape growers and wine distributors in transactions and litigation, including arbitrations and mediations. He has handled numerous jury and court trials as well as arbitrations and mediations for both plaintiffs and defendants.

MEMBERSHIPS and SPECIAL HONORS

Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers; Member, American Board of Trial Advocates; Association of Business Trial Lawyers; and ABA Committee on Condemnation Law. Instructor, Hastings College of Trial Advocacy (Business Litigation); Western States Petroleum Assn. Property Tax Seminar; Sonoma State University; and Santa Rosa Junior College - Real Estate Law.

EDUCATION

J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, 1965
AB with honors, University of the Pacific, 1968