25 Years of Dispute Resolution: How Miles Mediation & Arbitration Has Evolved Over a Quarter Century

By Kelly K. James

 

Twenty-five years ago, John Miles founded his own “one-man” alternative dispute resolution (ADR) company. John had no idea at the time what the future held, nor that a quarter of a century later, the company would have grown to include 14 offices, a panel of 150 neutrals, and a staff of more than 40. Here’s a closer look at how Miles has grown, and what John hopes for the company as Miles continues to expand.

 

Launching Miles

John started his law practice in 1988 as an insurance defense attorney. In 2000, he decided to devote his practice to ADR. “I had had a successful law practice but the first time I tried mediation, I realized it was what I wanted to do,” says John.

 

“The law is often about fighting and conflict, yet in its purest form, the law is supposed to be about helping people. I concluded that traditional litigation sometimes focused on the dispute rather than the client’s best interests,” he adds. “I found it more satisfying to help people find common ground than to enable them to keep fighting.”

 

John ran the business on his own early on and started adding mediators to his panel about a year later. Joe Murphey, David Nutter, and Wayne Wilson were the first additions to the panel; John continued to add neutrals, including Gino Brogdon, Jr., Danny Cohen, and Greg Parent, over the coming years.

 

As the company grew, John realized he needed someone to manage the business side. Enter his son, Jake Miles. From the time he graduated in high school in 2012, Jake spent his summers at Miles, learning every aspect of the business, including booking mediations, handling billing and collections, and ordering lunch.

 

“Over time, Jake began to recognize his gift,” says John. “He understands flows of money and he can make projections.” It was Jake who pointed out that the then-model for Miles’ business wouldn’t work in the long term, and that the firm needed to re-imagine and rebrand to thrive.

 

Re-imagining Miles

So, John re-imagined Miles, upgrading the types of cases that Miles handled and bringing on well-known, successful mediators like Susan Forsling and Rex Smith to further expand the company and attract more clients and business. In 2014, Parag Shah joined Miles as a mediator, and in 2020, proved to be more than just a mediator.

 

“When COVID-19 shut us down, it turbocharged my weaknesses. I’m not particularly good at operations and terrible at planning and anticipating trends,” admits John. “I didn’t even know what Zoom was. Parag stepped in to help with crisis management and in short order, it became abundantly apparent that Parag was a genius when it comes to motivating and leading and identifying and recruiting top talent. Within 48 hours, he had all our mediators up on Zoom, and Jake and I both said, ‘I think he’s our man.’ While he started as CEO on January 1, 2023, the truth is he had been de facto CEO before that.”

 

Following John’s vision for the company, Parag has helped turn Miles into a regional — and soon to be national — entity. Parag recognized that the company needed to prove its value to the neutrals on its panel — and prove its value to the attorneys who hired mediators. He did so by creating a deep bench of experienced neutrals with expertise in different areas of law and focusing on providing clients with the highest level of service and support.

 

“No one has done what we have done,” says John. “Parag has taken the customer service model and brought that to what is fundamentally a legal services company.”

 

Miles in 2025 and Beyond

John had a vision when he built Miles Mediation & Arbitration. “My goal then, and now, is that anyone who encounters my company is left better off than where they were before,” he says. “I have also been committed to building a diverse company, both in terms of the neutrals on our panel, and our full-time employees, and am proud of the fact that more than 30 percent of our neutrals and staff members are diverse.

 

“I knew as the bar became younger and became less male and more female and more diverse, that attorneys would want to work with people who look like them or who have had similar experiences,” he adds. “At Miles we provide the legal community with a bench of quality people who they want to work with.”

 

While ADR has changed in some ways, its fundamentals remain the same. “If someone is injured, it provides something traditional litigation cannot — the opportunity to express themselves and be heard,” John says. “I believe that traditional litigation is dying but you’re always going to have conflict, and lawsuits are always going to come. That is inevitable and there will need to be a mechanism to resolve that–and for now no one has invented a better ‘mousetrap’ than mediation.”

 

While John’s role has changed, his influence continues to be felt by the company, its neutrals, and its staff. “I would hope that as Miles grows, my role continues to be more of a ‘proud papa,’” says John. “When your kids go off to college, you hope they have the foundation that you’ve given them, and you hope that they’re happy and that you’ve equipped them for success. With Miles, I’ve equipped this organization; I’ve got the right team; and I’m proud of the culture we’ve created at Miles.

 

“We have an extraordinary team of professionals, and our staff is at a level they’ve never been before. At one point, we were the biggest ADR firm in Georgia and then we were the biggest in the Southeast,” adds John. “Now I think we have the foundation to be a national ADR company.”

 

And as Miles continues to grow, the company’s neutrals will continue to help their clients resolve disputes — which is the reason John founded the company 25 years ago.

ABOUT MILES MEDIATION & ARBITRATION

Miles Mediation & Arbitration is shaping the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) industry with our comprehensive professional services model that combines the expertise of our highly skilled, diverse panel of neutrals with an unparalleled level of client support to guide and empower parties to fair, timely, and cost-effective resolution regardless of case size, specialization, or complexity. For more information, please call 888-305-3553 or email support@milesadr.com.