C. Craig Woods

Craig has been litigating, arbitrating and mediating cases for more than 40 years.  After graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law, he began his legal career as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Robert M. Duncan (S.D. OH).  He then embarked on a long run as a trial lawyer with Squire Patton Boggs in Columbus.  He left SPB in 2021 to start up Woods Law & Dispute Resolution, LLC, a firm that focuses on mediation and arbitration.  

Craig first started mediating cases back in the late 1980s when he was appointed as a volunteer mediator for the S.D. Ohio. He still serves in that role, mediating a number of cases for that court each year. In part because of this work, Craig also began to conduct private mediations in selected cases, particularly those involving sensitive or particularly complicated disputes. Decades ago, in one of his first private cases, Craig successfully and quietly mediated a potential dispute between disparate branches of a well-known family over the proposed realignment of the family’s extensive business interests, real properties and other holdings, thereby helping stave off what could have been a protracted and very public lawsuit. 

Since then, Craig has mediated an extraordinarily wide variety of cases, including business disputes and commercial disagreements, real estate and development issues, personal injury lawsuits, employment disputes, environmental matters and complex tort claims. He participates in several professional organizations and committees that focus on mediation and other forms of ADR, including the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and the FBA ADR Section. He has also presented on and/or written about mediation and other ADR-related topics in venues or publications throughout the U.S. Several years ago, he was asked by a noted mediation expert in Spain to do a presentation on U.S.-style mediation to about 200 of her colleagues in Madrid. More recently he has lectured on the topic at law schools and CLE events around the U.S.

Craig believes in the magic of mediation, but he also understands that the magic can’t happen without thorough preparation and an approach that is tailored specifically to the needs of the parties and their respective counsel. To that end, he works hard in advance of the mediation to learn the case, and he often caucuses with trial counsel well before the initial mediation session to solicit their views on how best to achieve a resolution. 

During mediation sessions, Craig listens carefully to counsel and their clients, and he tries to build rapport with each. He believes, though, that effective mediation necessarily involves more than passive facilitation or shuttle diplomacy. He will, as appropriate, press the parties to reexamine their own assumptions or will offer evaluative comments where necessary to keep discussions moving toward resolution. As a last resort, he will also make a mediator’s proposal, but only if he feels that all other potential avenues have been exhausted. He is nothing if not persistent. As long as he thinks progress can be made toward a negotiated resolution, he will keep at it – at least until counsel and/or the parties tell him to stand down. 

• J.D., University of Virginia, 1981
• A.B. (history), magna cum laude, Dartmouth College, 1978

• Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers (inducted 2013; State of Ohio and Professional Responsibility/Legal Ethics Committees)
• ABA (Litigation, ADR, Legal Ethics Sections)
• Ohio State Bar Assn. (Litigation, Sr. Lawyers Sections)
• Columbus Bar Assn. (Federal Court, Common Pleas Committees)
• Federal Bar Assn. (Cols. Chapter and ADR Section)
• Dartmouth Lawyers Assn.

Hourly rate varies based on type of case and amounts at issue.  Please call for details.