About
Stephanie Lyons

Stephanie Lyons helps businesses and families resolve disputes by bridging legal expertise with real-world business experience. With over 15 years practicing commercial real estate and corporate law, plus 10+ years as a finance executive at a Fortune 100 insurance company, she understands conflicts from all sides of the table—as legal counsel, business operator, and dealmaker.

Stephanie brings a unique perspective to mediation: she's structured complex real estate transactions and partnership agreements, managed investment risks for a $300 billion institutional portfolio, and audited financial statements and operational controls across multiple regulated entities, including a bank, mutual fund, broker-dealer and registered investment advisor. Her past roles involved working closely with accountants, actuaries, investment bankers, compliance officers, cybersecurity experts, surveyors and title companies. Whether disputes involve financial statement analysis, contractual disputes, partnership agreements, will contests or fiduciary duty, she can read between the lines with both legal precision and financial acumen.

Stephanie has navigated high-stakes negotiations with boards, regulators, and opposing parties, and led sensitive fraud investigations and whistleblower matters—experience that proves invaluable when trust has broken down and stakes are high. 

Stephanie’s mediation philosophy is grounded in understanding how people actually make decisions under stress. She has studied the neuroscience of conflict—including how the brain’s amygdala hijacks rational thinking during disputes—and applies insights from behavioral economics to help parties move past emotional reactivity. She believes that conflict is inevitable; what matters is creating the conditions for resolution. Stephanie brings this understanding to every mediation, using proven techniques to reduce tension and guide parties toward practical outcomes.

Trained at the mediation programs of both Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and committed to ongoing education in negotiation, mediation, and arbitration Stephanie focuses on practical solutions that resolve disputes efficiently, preserve confidentiality, and protect business value and family wealth. 

Stephanie grew up in and currently lives in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin with her husband, a Shorewood native. Together they have three adult children, the youngest of whom is leaving for college in the fall. Stephanie enjoys biking, hiking, travel, genealogy, cooking, gardening, and making maple syrup at her family’s cabin in Northern Michigan.