Attorney Richard Pettit is no stranger to change. If anything, he’s well accustomed to the feel of shifting sand beneath his shoes.
Originally from upstate New York, Pettit graduated from Covenant College in the mid ’80s with a degree in interdisciplinary studies, which he jokingly calls “a degree in indecision.”
Soon after, Pettit elected to attend law school. “I was painting houses, and I wanted to see if I had any brain cells left,” he says.
Pettit had more than he thought. Upon earning his degree and passing the bar, he practiced law for several years in Alabama before returning to Chattanooga to develop a civil litigation practice at Leitner, Williams, Dooley & Napolitan. About 15 years ago, the glint of mediation caught his eye.
“I saw the tremendous waste of time and resources litigation usually affords people. And if there are personal relationships to protect, it tends to destroy those,” he says.
The eighth of ten children, Pettit grew up a keen listener and observer. The skills he nurtured early in life as he watched rooms full of adults interact seemed tailored for the role of mediator.
“I like to figure out the relationships of the people involved, and then find a point of contact from which I can help everyone communicate better,” he says.
Pettit is not only a good listener and analyst, but has a temperament perfectly fitted for mediation. His manner of speech is relaxed, and although he’s articulate, he rarely says anything without first pausing to give the words the other person spoke room to breathe. His physical mannerisms are just as laid back, to the point friends and colleagues often joke about checking him for a pulse.
“Mediation works for me because I can discuss things with people without losing control. If they’re out of control, they need someone to filter their communication so it’s more constructive,” he says.
After Pettit, a Christian, had added mediation to his tool belt, he concentrated on church disputes. “Conflict is a universal problem, and scripture is not silent on how professing believers should respond to it,” he says.
Using a Biblical paradigm for conflict resolution, Pettit has resolved multi-million dollar disputes in an afternoon, handled child sex abuse allegations in a church, smoothed over disharmony among church staff, and more. He says it’s the most rewarding work he’s ever done – and the most challenging.
“There aren’t too many people neurotic enough to get into those trenches,” he says.
Then, in 2011, a perfect storm of events prompted Pettit to change course.
A twister of fate
The first gust of wind came as the phone rang on April 27, 2011, at the corporate representation firm where Pettit was working. His wife was the caller.
“I have four children who mean the world to me,” he says, pausing to keep from choking up as he relates the details of what had happened. “My wife said a tornado had hit our house, and a 40- to 60-ton oak tree had fallen through my son’s bedroom and missed him by two feet.”
Their son was OK, but two months later, their insurance company declared their house a total loss. Then, two days after Pettit received the news about his home, the firm for which he was working eliminated his job. It was the final gust of wind in a storm that had reduced the life he’d built to rubble, save his family.
“I was being given an opportunity to refocus. Neon signs were flashing ‘Make a change,’ but they were in Russian, so I couldn’t read them,” he says.
Family had always been important to Pettit, but the tornado sharpened his focus. He began to take stock of what he did well, and think and pray about what he could do moving forward. As Pettit sifted through his options, he traveled with his family to Ecuador to look into work relocating Americans to that country, and considered returning to the corporate world to handle labor and employment disputes, but he felt pulled in a different direction: elder care mediation.
“I’ve done a lot of work with the courts in cases in which an elderly person can’t handle his person or property anymore, and others are petitioning to have a conservator declared for him,” he says. “When those petitions are contested, they’re usually hotly contested. I’ve seen families splinter in the midst of those situations.”
As Pettit analyzed his interests, he realized he’d come to define himself in terms of his family. Suddenly, the neon signs were flashing English instead of Russian.
“I want to help to preserve and protect families. I can’t think of an area with more redemptive value. And it’s where my passion now lies,” he says.
A new direction
Pettit says elder care mediation is an area of growing need. Moreover, the issues that arise are often complex and call for someone who understands the areas of concern and can look objectively at the big picture. To prepare, Pettit received specialized training in Texas and crafted a business plan that includes not only mediation but also consulting for large companies.
“If you have 300 employees, how many of them have aging parents? If you were to hire me to do a seminar on constructive dialogue and conflict resolution through the transitions of life, then your employees would be better armed to deal with those issues when they come up. You’ll benefit because there would be fewer interruptions at work,” Pettit says.
In all things, Pettit wants to help people and live a life in better relation to those around him. He’s traveled with his children to more than a dozen countries, trained thousands of mediators in the U.S., Eastern Europe and South America as a member of Peacekeeper Ministries, and is working to help an Ohio man he says was wrongly convicted of murder in 1999. “I’ve been blessed to be able to help a lot of people,” he says matter of factly.
As Pettit begins to work in an area he believes presents an unmet need, he can feel himself stepping from shifting sand onto rock. Life might change again someday, but for now, he’s content in knowing he’s standing where he can make a difference in the lives of others.