Candace Love Windel
Attorney. Arbitrator. Mediator. Project Neutral.
Candace Love Windel’s law practice is devoted exclusively to a neutral role in dispute resolution. She primarily handles construction, commercial, real estate, and governmental and public-agency matters with particular experience involving infrastructure, water and wastewater, finance, contracting, and complex projects.
Ms. Windel brings more than 25 years of legal experience to her work as a neutral, together with a breadth of practical experience that extends well beyond traditional legal practice. Her background includes private legal practice, senior management within a state governmental agency responsible for financing and overseeing major water and wastewater projects, and ownership and management of a water and wastewater construction company. This combination gives her an unusual perspective on disputes involving owners, contractors, governmental entities, engineers, lenders, developers, and other project participants.
From 2006 to 2007, Ms. Windel served as Deputy Executive Administrator of the Texas Water Development Board. In that role, she oversaw hundreds of million dollars of agency’s loan programs including underwriting, project approval, engineering review, and construction management of federally-funded water and wastewater projects. Her experience provided firsthand exposure to the financial, technical, contractual, regulatory, and practical considerations that determine whether a major public infrastructure project succeeds—or becomes the subject of a dispute.
Her private-sector experience provides another important perspective. As an owner and manager of a water and wastewater construction company, Ms. Windel was intimately involved in construction projects from the business and operational side, including the realities of project performance, contracting, construction management, and the competing interests that can arise among project participants. Having previously held a Texas real estate broker’s license, she has practiced extensively in real estate and commercial matters in multiple capacities.
Ms. Windel currently serves as a neutral in the Texas Comptroller’s property-tax arbitration system, conducting evidentiary hearings and issuing final decisions in arbitration proceedings involving substantial property valuations and alleged breaches of legal hearing protocols at the local Arbitration Board level. This work has further developed her expertise in evaluating evidence, hearing competing positions, identifying the issues that actually matter to a dispute, and making independent reasoned decisions.
As a mediator, Ms. Windel brings the same preparation and substantive understanding to the process while recognizing that the parties—not the mediator—control the outcome. Her approach is practical and analytical, with an emphasis on understanding the underlying business and project realities as well as the legal issues. She believes effective mediation requires more than simply facilitating communication; it requires preparation, careful listening, credibility with the parties and counsel, and a willingness to engage meaningfully with the issues in dispute.
In addition to her law degree Ms. Windel holds a Master’s degree in Communication. She currently teaches Mediation in a university graduate program and Business Law in an undergraduate program. She also has taught continuing legal education courses on real estate and easement matters. Her teaching reflects her broader commitment to helping lawyers and professionals understand both the legal framework and the practical considerations that shape disputes.
Whether serving as an arbitrator, mediator, or project neutral, Ms. Windel brings an interdisciplinary perspective to each matter. Her experience as a lawyer, public-agency executive, construction-company owner, real estate professional, and educator allows her to understand disputes not only as legal controversies, but also as business and project problems that often have significant consequences for the people and organizations involved.
She serves parties and counsel in in-person, remote, and hybrid proceedings.