Michael J. Schless

Mike Schless is a Martindale-Hubbell Preeminent A-V rated attorney whose practice has been limited to Alternative Dispute Resolution since 1992. He has mediated or arbitrated over 2,000 cases covering a broad range of topics and degrees of complexity.

Mike is a past National President of the Association of Attorney-Mediators, and is the AA-M representative on the Board of Directors of the Texas Mediator Credentialing Association. He has served as the Chair of the TMCA board. .

A past Chair of the ADR Section of the State Bar of Texas, Mike received the ADR Section's Justice Frank G. Evans Award in 2006 for outstanding efforts in promoting or furthering the use or research of alternative dispute resolution methods in Texas.

He has also served as President of the Texas Association of Mediators, and received that organization's Susanne C. Adams Award in 2003 for his outstanding service and dedication to the mediation profession.

In 2019 the TMCA named Mike its Outstanding Credentialed Mediator. The 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015 editions of Best Lawyers? in Texas each list Mike as a Best Lawyer in Mediation. In 2012 Texas Lawyer Magazine named Mike one of four "Top- Notch" lawyers, and one of only five finalists for the honor of being named the "Go-To" lawyer in Texas for arbitration and mediation. He has also been named a "Texas Super Lawyer" in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 by Thomson Reuters as published in. Texas Monthly Magazine.

In 2016 Mike was selected as a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators. He was a member of the Supreme Court of Texas Advisory Committee on Court-Annexed Mediation. Mike is a member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. He is a Fellow of the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution at the University of Texas School of Law; an Advisory Committee member for the Frank Evans Center for Dispute Resolution at the South Texas College of Law in Houston; a member of the arbitration and mediation panels of the American Arbitration Association; the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR) Roster of Distinguished Neutrals; and a member of the International Academy of Mediators, and the Association for Conflict Resolution.

Mike is an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law where he teaches courses in Negotiation and Mediation. He has also been a member of the faculty of the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) Executive Masters of International and European Business Law program where he taught mediation each year in Luxembourg for nine years.

Prior to his career in ADR, Mike served the people of Travis County, Texas, as Judge of the County Court at Law, No. 3 from 1982 to 1992, having been elected to that position three times. He was selected by his fellow judges to serve as their first presiding judge.

Before his service on the bench, Mike had been a trial lawyer in Austin since he was licensed in 1973. Mike has served as President of the Austin Young Lawyers Association; as a member of the Board of Directors of the Travis County Bar Association; and as founder and first Chair of the ADR Section of the Travis County Bar Association. In 1982 Mike was selected as the Outstanding Young Lawyer of Travis County. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas (B.A. Philosophy) in 1970 and his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1973.

Locations	No. of Attorneys
Austin,	1

Practice Areas	No. of Attorneys
Construction	1
Environmental and Land Use	1
Family Law	1
Government Contracts	1
Health Care	1
Insurance Coverage	1
Labor & Employment	1
Litigation	2
Litigation - General (consumer)	2
Other	1
Real Estate	2
Trusts and Estates	1