Elk Creek Arbitration & Mediation Lawyers

Our driving belief is based on old-fashioned advocacy. We are a small Westlake Village-based firm and recognize the importance of being accessible to our clients. We believe in personal attention, and our clients have direct, responsive contact with us. At the Law Offices of Richard J. Uss, we take particular pride in the quality of service that our clients receive. We believe in forming relationships.

Breanna Cornwall is the firm’s founder and managing attorney. Since going into private practice, she has focused on representing clients involved in family law matters including divorce, military divorce, child custody, and spousal support. She also represents clients in obtaining (and defending against) domestic violence restraining orders and civil restraining orders such as civil harassment restraining orders, workplace violence restraining orders, and private postsecondary school violence restraining orders.

Prior to starting her own firm, she had an extensive background as a business owner and entrepreneur. She started and managed a staffing agency and a real estate brokerage. Her business and...

Karen Matcke Crosby Attorney / Mediator P.C. 35+ years of legal practice and 15+ years as a mediator. WHY MEDIATION CAN BE SUPERIOR TO COURT By Karen Matcke Crosby (2021) Court litigation exposes parties to great public exposure, expense and long delays in court proceedings. Litigants have little or no control over the procedural process. How a dispute arose in the first place, is given short shrift, failing to consider the parties’ intentions, experience in negotiations (or lack thereof), personality, ego, culture, norms, morals, bullying, customs, or values. What is heard in court is the representing attorney’s version of his client’s legal...

After spending nearly a decade working in Europe and Asia for large international law firms, I recently opened a lean law firm in Los Angeles focused on resolving commercial disputes through arbitration & meditation. My main focus is handling matters with an international element and working with social impact entrepreneurs. I often work with social enterprises that incorporate a social mission into their business models, particularly smaller, more entrepreneurial companies. Given my experience abroad and my commercial background, I am able to provide strategic guidance that addresses my clients’ legal and commercial objectives, particularly for those doing business in Asia. I have...

Fred Bennett is an independent arbitrator/mediator with over 35 years of experience as an arbitrator and advocate of an exceptionally broad range of complex international and domestic disputes, as well as business litigation/trials. He was formerly a senior partner and global chair of the arbitration practice at Quinn Emanuel for many years, and before that a senior partner with and chair of the worldwide ADR group at Gibson Dunn. He is an arbitration panelist on (i) the AAA's Large Complex Case Panels for Commercial, Construction, and Aviation, Aerospace and National Security disputes, (ii) the AAA's International...