Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Zabel.
Sarah, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My plan when I graduated from law school was to practice entertainment and sports law. Before attending law school I was a paralegal for the State Attorneys Office, Child Support Enforcement. In my last year of law school, the division chief of child support called me and offered me a lawyer position with the office. I got married the summer before my last year of law school and became pregnant with my oldest son. I was seven months pregnant when I took the Florida Bar. Fortunately, I passed the first time. My husband had his own business and at the time the benefits for our family were more important than my career path. I took the position with child support thinking I would stay for a while and then leave to pursue my original career path. Well, one year led to another and I ended up staying for nearly seven years. By then I had done the 180 and fell in love with public service. I was very involved with the Miami-Dade Florida Association for Women Lawyers. I served as Board member, secretary, treasurer, president elect and president. I left child support to open my own law practice, knowing one day I would try to become a judge. My practice was, for the most part, a general practice, but I was also a certified civil and family mediator.
On August 9th, 2001 my life was forever changed. That day while in my office, I received a call from Jackson Memorial informing me my husband fell from a ladder and could not move his legs. I was four months pregnant with my fourth child at the time. My husband was immediately flown to Israel for an experimental program to help cure his paralysis. Unfortunately, the program did not work and my husband was left as a paraplegic. He came home a few weeks before our daughter was born. On September 11th my first cousin Leon Lebor was killed in the World Trade Center. My husband believed I should not wait to become a judge so I decided to run in an open seat(a judge was retiring). I took the Bench in January 2003 and left June 2018. Life, as they say, is full circle. I decided I wanted to resolve disputes peacefully through alternative dispute resolution. I love acronyms, so I came up with the name MAZE Resolutions PA. M is for mediation, A is for arbitration, Z is for Zabel and E is for the end, because my goal is to help navigate people through the maze of any type of conflict.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My background as a former circuit court judge with many years of trial experience has given me the cache to promote my business in alternative dispute resolution. However, like in any business, there is a lot of competition in the ADR world. Also, there is the glass ceiling world for women facilitating commercial cases. When I took the family mediation certification course the room was made up of mostly women and in the civil circuit mediation course there were mostly men. I am known as a calm person, but that should not be equated with me having the ability to negotiate and settle a case. I made difficult decisions on some very complex issues while serving on the civil bench. The good news is the dial is turning for women mediators or arbitrators. Since opening my practice I have been able to settle most of the cases I have mediated.
Please tell us more about your business.
My business is a full service dispute resolution company. I mediate all areas of disputes, which include all types of civil issues, family, worker’s compensation and probate. I also act as a special master. As a special master, I oversee discovery disputes and manage issues that alleviate the congestion from the court. I also act as a neutral umpire in first party insurance disputes. Another part of my business is acting as a nonbinding arbitrator. Non-binding arbitration is an excellent avenue of dispute resolution. The court system is the last place of dispute resolution. I do believe that some cases do need to go to trial, non-jury or jury. There were so many times while on the Bench I would think that this case should have settled. Any time I am able to stop the journey of individuals stuck in the court system it is extremely fulfilling. No one has a crystal ball as to the outcome of a case in the system and no lawyer will guarantee their client will ultimately prevail. I especially feel rewarded when I am able to keep children out of the court system. My goal in family cases with children is to do everything possible to prevent the boomerang case and keep children away from the court system. I tell parents they may be divorcing as a couple, but will always be married as parents! I have had lawyers come up to me before mediation and tell me this won’t take long because there is no way we are going to be able to settle, but somehow I get it done. I am extremely tenacious and think outside of the box in resolving disputes. My tagline is “compromise is a strength, not a weakness.”
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Besides being the mother of four children I am a mentor to many young people. I truly believe the measure of success is not in the grades you receive, but the type of person you are. I always stay true to myself and market myself as someone who can facilitate a healthy resolution to a dispute. Personal success is knowing my children are doing well. Business success is the ability to sustain and grow my dispute resolution practice.
Pricing:
- for rates and additional information contact MAZE Resolutions PA
Contact Info:
- Website: MAZEresolutions.com
- Phone: 3056522699
- Email: sz@mazeresolutions.com
- Facebook: https://mobile.facebook.com/MAZEresolutions/
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/maze-resolutions-north-miami-beach
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/maze-resolutions-pa
Suggest a story: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
