About Us

Created in 2011, Scholes Dispute Resolution Services (SDRS) is all things Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).  Believing that disputes can be constructive and can encourage progress, SDRS is here to provide its clients with the resources needed to achieve those outcomes.  Traditionally, people believed that to resolve a dispute they had three options: 1) avoid it;  2) take care of it themselves; or 3) go to court.  Fortunately, in the past few decades alternatives have become more prevelant and SDRS is committed to providing clients with the alternative that may best suit them.  

While SDRS' current focus is serving Southern Utah (St. George, Washington, Cedar City, Hurricane, Kanab, etc.), SDRS is committed to resolving disputes where needed and will work with its clients wherever the destination may be.

Gary J. Scholes, Esq.

Gary J. Scholes, Esq. employs his dispute resolution, business, and legal experience to provide independent knowledge and perspective and to foster better communication, to resolve disputes, and to facilitate negotiations for his clients.  Gary was born in Salt Lake City and spent half his childhood there before moving to Cedar City, Utah.  Gary has been involved in dispute resolution since middle school when he served as a peer counselor/mediator.  That experience inspired him to be involved in conflict resolution.  

Gary earned his Master in Dispute Resolution degree from the nation’s number one ranked Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University.  Gary was also part of Pepperdine’s Dispute Resolution Journal, assisting in the editing and publication of dispute resolution articles as a staff member.  Gary has worked with prestigious national and regional dispute resolution firms, such as JAMS, Arbitration Mediation Conciliation Center, the Center for Conflict Resolution, Community Action Program, and Utah Dispute Resolution.  He is also a member and board member of Utah Council on Conflict Resolution.  Gary has been a part of over 70 mediations, spanning a wide variety of cases and ranging in values from one-hundred to millions of dollars.  He has facilitated over 60 mediations and has been a part of 26 arbitrations.  Gary is on the Utah State Court Roster of Mediators, including the domestic/divorce mediation roster.

Gary earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Marketing from Southern Utah University.  While attending SUU, Gary was named the Outstanding Junior Management Scholar in 2005.  During his three and one half years at SUU, Gary also worked full-time as a manager for a corporate global leader in customer care.  After graduating in 2006, Gary and his family moved to Southern California where he attended Pepperdine University School of Law,  was a member of Phi Delta Phi and graduated in the top third of his class.  After his first year of law school, Gary externed for the Honorable Bruce S. Jenkins of the United States District Court for the District of Utah in Salt Lake City.  During his final year of law school, Gary worked for Pepperdine University’s Office of the General Counsel.  After passing the California bar, Gary practiced estate planning, tax, and criminal law as well as provided general counsel to a foreign consulate located in Los Angeles.  With a desire to be closer to his roots and to serve the community around him, Gary and his family relocated back to Utah where he established Scholes Dispute Resolution Services.

Gary J. Scholes' Curriculum Vitae