In 2020, Smith Sovik partners Jim Cunningham, Kevin Hulslander and Jim Lantier served as mediators in numerous complex personal injury and commercial cases as a part of the growing Smith Sovik mediation practice.
Jim Cunningham has tripled his mediation practice throughout the State over the past year. His work in mediating cases across the personal injury spectrum has not only been successful, it has made him the newest fixture as the go-to mediator in Upstate New York. Cunningham has a unique ability to listen to the parties, acknowledge their positions and to help them see the strengths and weaknesses of their case. These skills make Jim an ideal mediator for cases involving parties that have trouble negotiating a reasonable settlement on their own. He travels from Buffalo to Albany and from Watertown to Binghamton and all the counties in between to get complex cases settled in venues all around the State.
Kevin Hulslander, the firm’s managing partner since 2005, focused his mediation practice on commercial matters in 2020. He combined his trial experience and legal knowledge to help a variety of parties resolve difficult disputes involving construction, collection, contractual and corporate controversies. Widely known as a consummate advocate with over 30 years of legal experience, Kevin’s common sense approach and knowledge of the law and the litigation process allows him to help parties look beyond mere negotiating positions and see the realities of litigation and trial if a resolution is not reached.
Jim Lantier leveraged his decades of experience in the law and medicine handling all kinds of medical malpractice claims all over the State to mediate cases and bring complex medical malpractice lawsuits to resolution. Lantier is a fixture in the Upstate New York medical malpractice bar and a trusted figure with judges, medical professionals and insurance companies. He uses his medical background and his 40 years of experience trying medical malpractice cases to help parties see beyond the complexities of the medical malpractice law and into the intricacies of each individual case, in all different areas of medicine and all different specialties. Jim’s soft touch and reasonable approach does well to bring combatants together to reach a reasonable settlement.
