Thank You for Your Mediation Request
Divorce and family law disputes can be complicated, personal, and difficult to resolve. Lené Alley DeRudder provides neutral divorce and family law mediation in Texas and New York City, helping parties work through disputed issues and pursue practical agreements outside the courtroom.
Licensed in both Texas and New York, Lené draws on extensive experience in family law litigation, mediation, and Collaborative Divorce to help parties better understand the issues separating them, explore possible resolutions, and keep negotiations moving forward.
Meet Lené Alley DeRudder, Mediator
Lené Alley DeRudder is an experienced divorce and family law mediator who works with attorneys, their clients, and individuals seeking a more private and collaborative way to resolve family law disputes.
Lené began her mediation career with Dispute Mediation Services in Dallas and has mediated privately throughout her family law career. Her background includes extensive courtroom experience as well as training in Collaborative Divorce, giving her insight into both contested litigation and interest-based negotiation.
As a mediator, however, Lené serves in a different role than she does when representing a family law client. She is a neutral facilitator—not an advocate for either party and not a judge. Her role is to help participants identify the issues preventing resolution, evaluate possible paths forward, and engage in productive settlement discussions.
This combination of litigation experience, collaborative training, and mediation experience is especially useful in complex family law matters where legal, financial, parenting, and personal concerns can overlap.
What Is Divorce and Family Law Mediation?
Mediation is a confidential dispute-resolution process in which a neutral third-party mediator helps the parties communicate, identify disputed issues, and explore mutually acceptable solutions.
Rather than deciding who is right or wrong, the mediator facilitates the negotiation. The parties maintain control over whether an agreement is reached and what that agreement contains.
Family law mediation may be used to address issues including:
For many families, mediation provides an opportunity to resolve disagreements without asking a judge to make every important decision about their finances, children, and future.
Why Consider Mediation?
Mediation gives parties an opportunity to work toward resolution in a more private and flexible environment than traditional courtroom litigation.
Depending on the circumstances, benefits may include:
What Does a Family Law Mediator Do?
A family law mediator is a neutral facilitator who helps participants work toward a possible agreement.
During mediation, Lené may help the parties:
A mediator does not represent either party, provide legal advice to either side, act as a judge, or decide the outcome.
Any agreement reached through mediation is made by the parties themselves.
What Should I Expect During Mediation?
Every family law mediation is different.
Some disputes can be resolved in a few hours. Others involve multiple issues, significant assets, parenting concerns, or longstanding disagreements and may require a longer session or more than one mediation date.
It is also normal for negotiations to progress unevenly. The parties may appear close to an agreement at one point and farther apart later in the process.
Participants should come prepared, remain open to considering possible solutions, and understand that reaching an agreement may require time and compromise.
If the parties reach an agreement, the terms will generally be put in writing. Whether and when that agreement becomes legally binding depends on the state, the circumstances of the case, how the agreement is executed, and any required court approval.
