Career

Tia Welch Maerz started her career as a Trial Deputy for the City and County of San Francisco, winning every case that she took to trial, and then leveraged her experience to build a private practice as a founding partner of two San Francisco boutique litigation firms. For over 20 years, she represented clients in complex civil litigation matters.  

Tia is a mediation lawyer whose mediation practice focuses on a wide variety of employment claims, from harassment, discrimination, retaliation, leave of absence and disability claims to trade secret problems to wage and hour class actions. She also mediates business and commercial disputes, contract issues, insurance coverage problems, and personal injury and maritime claims, and civil rights violations. 

As a seasoned lawyer with a 90% winning record in 20+ trials, Tia Welch Maerz has been settling cases since 2008. She is an appointed neutral to the Mediation and Early Neutral Evaluation Panels for the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, and to the Bar Association of San Francisco mediation services and has been an Early Settlement Panelist of the San Francisco Superior Court and mediator for the Alameda County Access to Justice program.

Community Mentorship

Tia counseled minority and underprivileged high schoolers through the Bar Association of San Francisco’s School-to-College Program and served on the Board of Directors of GirlVentures, whose mission is to empower middle-school girls to overcome gender stereotypes. 

She taught trial advocacy skills to law students through the University of San Francisco School of Law’s Intensive Advocacy Program, and mentored new attorneys as a Master of the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court, dedicated to promoting the best qualities of trial advocates.