Some disputes are easier to resolve when an experienced neutral becomes involved before the dispute becomes an arbitration or lawsuit.
Candace Love Windel serves as a project neutral for complex construction, infrastructure, development, and public-agency projects. Her role can be tailored to the needs of the particular project and may include helping identify and address emerging issues, facilitating communication among project participants, assisting with disputes as they arise, or providing an independent perspective on issues that could otherwise escalate.
Ms. Windel’s qualifications as a project neutral arise from experience that is unusually broad for a dispute-resolution professional. She has more than 25 years of legal experience and has worked on both sides of the public/private divide. As Deputy Executive Administrator of the Texas Water Development Board, she was involved in loan programs, underwriting, project approval, engineering review, and construction oversight for major water and wastewater projects. She has also owned and managed a water and wastewater construction company.
As a result, Ms. Windel understands that successful projects depend upon more than contract language. Financing, procurement, design, engineering, construction, scheduling, performance, communication, and the relationships among project participants can all affect the ultimate outcome.
A project neutral can provide an independent resource when issues arise between owners, contractors, designers, governmental entities, developers, lenders, or other participants. Early attention to those issues can sometimes prevent a disagreement from becoming a formal dispute.
Depending upon the needs of the project, a project neutral may:
- Help identify and address emerging disputes
- Facilitate discussions among project participants
- Assist with contract or performance issues
- Help evaluate competing positions before a dispute escalates
- Provide an independent perspective on project issues
- Facilitate resolution of discrete disputes during a project
- Help preserve productive working relationships
- Serve in a standing or as-needed neutral capacity
Ms. Windel’s role is tailored to the project and agreed upon in advance with the parties. She can serve in person, remotely, or through a hybrid arrangement, making the project-neutral process practical for both local and geographically dispersed projects.
Her objective is straightforward: help identify problems early, address them fairly, and keep the project moving whenever possible.