Stephen Lepley joins Straus Institute as Assistant Director
February 20, 2017 | By Kylie Larkin— The Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution is pleased to announce that Stephen Lepley began in January as Assistant Director of the Straus Institute and Adjunct Professor of Law at the Pepperdine University School of Law. He will serve as the student advisor and liaison to Seaver College students participating in the Straus Institute's Certificate in Conflict Management program, and to full-time MBA students earning their degree with a concentration in dispute resolution or with a Certificate in Dispute Resolution from the School of Law.
Professor Stephen Lepley
Professor Lepley graduated with an LL.M. in Dispute Resolution with a Concentration in Mediation from Pepperdine's School of Law in 2015. He has mediated cases since 2014 through California Dispute Resolution Professionals, LLC, a Santa Monica based firm that specializes in litigated case mediation.
Lepley holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Tulane University, and earned his J.D. from Marquette University Law School. A civil trial lawyer for more than thirty years, he spent more than a decade in private law practice representing individuals and businesses, and served appointments as a County Corporation Counsel in his native Wisconsin, and later as an Arizona Assistant Attorney General representing that state's Department of Revenue in civil litigation defense of property tax assessment appeals of telecommunications, airline and other statewide transportation and utility property. He was subsequently appointed Assistant Attorney General to a section of lawyers prosecuting civil racketeering and other financial remedy cases against criminals and criminal enterprises, during which his law enforcement task force team in 2007 won the International Association of Chiefs of Police ChoicePoint first place Award for Excellence in Criminal Investigations. Following appointment as Chief Counsel for the same Section of lawyers, Lepley was recognized by the Washington D.C. High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Office of National Drug Control Policy for outstanding achievement and significant contribution in the area of financial investigation. In 2010 he received the Attorney General's Award of Historic Distinction for the successful investigation, prosecution, and $94 million settlement of facilitation of money laundering claims against Western Union Financial Services, Inc., a case that the National Association of Attorneys General identified when naming Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard its 2010 National Attorney General of the Year.