Deb Graceffa

Before practicing law, Deb Graceffa, Esq. founded multiple businesses, including working as a real estate broker and developer. She started her first “business” at age 7 when she bought a giant bag of candy bars at the local corner store before school started, and resold them at school during the day, doubling her initial investment. While her teachers certainly didn’t appreciate her side hustle, it launched her thinking about how to creatively resolve problems...she wanted a jacket her parents wouldn’t buy for her, so she bought it for herself with her candy sale proceeds.

After her successful ventures in business, Deb launched her legal career over 18 years ago, practicing in the arenas of civil litigation, real estate litigation and real estate transactions. As an attorney, she represented all sides of thousands of disputes, gaining a balanced, 360-degree view of how to resolve legal problems. Deb’s combined business and legal experience gave her a unique background to tackle and resolve disputes directly, creatively and efficiently.

Over the years as a litigator, Deb recognized that there was a growing and dire need for a new breed of dispute resolution that involved more than shuttle diplomacy, old-school scare tactics by retired judges and scorched-earth litigation. To that end, she founded the Graceffa Dispute Resolution Center to offer a more modern approach to dispute resolution. In addition to traditional methods of dispute resolution, the Center weaves in a creative approach and offers a varied "toolbox" to resolve disputes including: collaborative litigation during the dispute resolution process; direct and honest neutral evaluation of matters; education for attorneys and their clients; consistent and meaningful follow-up if a matter does not settle right away; and a more consultative approach to dispute resolution than is the norm. No more scare tactics and no more cajoling parties to settle. Those days are over.