Philbin named best mediator in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO - Attorney and mediator Don Philbin was recently selected as 2014 "Lawyer of the Year" for Mediation in the San Antonio area.

Awarded by Best Lawyers in America, only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as a "Lawyer of the Year." Attorneys are selected by voting averages received during peer-review assessments for their abilities, professionalism and integrity.

Philbin was also listed in the 2014 "Best Lawyers in America" for Arbitration, and his firm, Donald R. Philbin Jr. PC, was awarded Metropolitan Tier 1 rankings for both Arbitration and Mediation.

He is an AV-rated attorney-mediator and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of Law-Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. He is also president of "Picture It Settled," a software company that develops predictive analytics for negotiation based upon deep data from thousands of litigated cases.

"After litigating commercial cases, forging business deals and case resolutions as general counsel and president of technology companies, and mediating hundreds of individual and collective cases in a wide variety of substantive areas, Don observed that the rhythm of the negotiation dance was predictable," the company's website states. "So he collected data on thousands of cases from lawyers, companies, mediators, and other sources. Studying the patterns in two dimensions (money and time), he developed Picture It Settled."

Philbin was also recognized as the 2011 Outstanding Lawyer in Mediation by the San Antonio Business Journal and is listed in The International Who's Who of Commercial Mediation. He is repeatedly listed in Best Lawyers In America, Texas Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in San Antonio and the U.S. News and Best Lawyers "Best Law Firm" Survey.

He is a fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, the American Academy of Civil Trial Mediators and the Texas Academy of Distinguished Neutrals.

In 1984, Philbin received a bachelor's degree in business from Trinity University and received a doctor of jurisprudence from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1987.

Philbin then earned an MBA from The University of Texas at San Antonio in 2001. He returned to Pepperdine in 2006 to complete an LL.M. program for a Master of Laws, an internationally recognized postgraduate law degree, in Dispute Resolution.