About

What Sets Amy Apart?

Amy Dunn Taylor has over 40 years of experience as a trial lawyer. Since 1987, she is and has been board certified in Civil Trial Law by both the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and the National Board of Trial Advocacy. She has served as an arbitrator for over 20 years on various panels including the AAA International Dispute Panel, its Construction Arbitration Panel and its Complex Commercial Dispute Resolution panel, to name a few. She has mediated cases for the last fifteen years, at times by appointment of several judges in Harris County and at times by party request. The experience of serving as an arbitrator or a mediator covers a broad spectrum of disputes including commercial and business disputes, construction defect cases, product liability lawsuits, personal injury cases, and professional liability suits, to name a few.

Amy is uniquely qualified to assist parties in resolving disputes and difficult conflicts, having represented both plaintiffs and defendants. She has tried cases for 4 decades so she is sensitized to the cost of litigation from the standpoint of time, emotional and financial investment, and understands that business people do not want to spend valuable business time embroiled in disputes. And her track record as a trial lawyer speaks for itself - in 75 jury trials, she came out on the winning side in all but two cases.

She has been a frequent speaker for the Houston Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, South Texas College of Law and University of Houston Law Foundation and has lectured on the subject of various aspects of litigation and alternative dispute resolution numerous times. She is also the author of a number of articles on the topics of mediation and arbitration.

Amy is now also equipped to mediate cases online via the Zoom platform. This has the added benefit of convenience for the parties, allowing them to participate from the comfort of their own home or office. This platform also enables Amy to mediate disputes for parties with accessibility concerns and since geography is irrelevant, it also allows Amy to offer mediation over a broad geographic area to virtually anywhere in the world.

Amy is a creative thinker and pragmatic problem solver. She has a strong commitment and confidence in Alternative Dispute Resolution. "One of the reasons I believe so strongly in mediation is that it is worth the relatively small commitment of time, effort and expense to explore the possibility of settlement. More often than not, the investment in Alternative Dispute Resolution is well worth the effort. I have found that frequently what appears to be an overwhelming obstacle to settlement merely requires some creative thinking and a fresh look. I give the parties my pledge to bring that fresh vision to each mediation and arbitration and to make sure every option is explored."

Amy's philosophy is that there are several natural intersections in the litigation process where mediation makes sense. These include, among others:

• Prior to suit
• Following suit, once the parties have filed initial pleadings and some written discovery has taken place
• Once key party depositions have been taken
• Once experts have been designated but before costly expert reports and discovery has been incurred

Amy has:

• Arbitrated the settlement of complex residential construction disputes between contractor and homeowners of high-end, multimillion dollar homes
• Arbitrated dispute of fraud allegations and professional negligence claims
• Successfully mediated multiple fatality cases with as many as a dozen layers of insurance
• Successfully mediated multiple personal injury claims
• Successfully mediated claims of negligence involving significant property damage
• Successfully mediated premises liability cases
• Successfully mediated construction defect matters

Amy earned her JD from South Texas College of Law in 1982, where she was admitted to the Order of the Barristers and her BA with honors from Trinity University in 1978. For the last 36 years, she has taught 3L students continuously as an adjunct faculty member at South Texas College of Law in trial advocacy clinical courses.