People hear "mediator" and picture a judge. Someone who listens to both sides and decides who is right. That is not what a mediator is. A mediator is a third-party neutral. Three words, and each one matters. Third party. Not one of the two sides. Outside the fight, with no stake in who comes out ahead. Neutral. No side. No agenda. A mediator does not represent either party and does not root for either one. A mediator is not an advocate and does not give legal advice. That is

MV Realty PBC has sued its former law firm, Holland & Knight, for $1.2 billion in legal malpractice. The complaint, filed in Florida state court, alleges that Holland & Knight billed the company more than $9 million while failing to properly advise it as the business model itself became the target of state attorney general investigations across the country. The suit names the firm along with partners Jesus Cuza, Rebecca Canamero, and Raul Cosio. It's a striking number. It's a

The Colorado River does not have enough water for the plans built on top of it. Nobody wants to say that plainly. I will. I have family who farm in the Upper Basin. Wells that used to hit water at a certain depth now have to go thirty feet deeper. That is not a policy failure. That is the climate moving faster than a hundred-year-old compact was built to handle. When the ground itself tells you the old assumptions are gone, the ground is right and the assumptions are wrong. S

Every few years baseball has the same argument. The Dodgers spend too much. The Yankees buy championships. Small-market teams can't compete. Then someone says the answer is a salary cap. No. I'm a Dodgers fan. I've been one long enough to remember the McCourt years and the bankruptcy. Most fans followed the Dodgers through the sports pages. I followed them through PACER. I remember reading bankruptcy filings to learn what was happening to my baseball team. I've seen what bad

Recommended: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written ​ For America's 250th anniversary, Walter Isaacson wrote a small book that does one thing: it takes a single sentence apart and shows you why it may be the most powerful one in American history. ​ Here is the sentence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

The fight everyone in real estate should be watching is happening in a Chicago courtroom. On the surface it looks like an MLS flexing its muscle. Look closer. It is a business earthquake, and it is already shaking. Here is what happened. Midwest Real Estate Data, the MLS that serves Chicago, cut Zillow off from its listing feed. Roughly 43,000 listings vanished from the site overnight. A federal judge ordered the feed restored a few days later. Now the parties are in court ov