The mark of a successful mediation for Joe Knittig isn’t just that a case has settled – it’s also that the process of reconciliation yields ongoing value beyond settlement. With experience in litigating employment disputes and navigating intense human conflict around the world, Joe is uniquely positioned to mediate disputes.

Joe earned his law degree in 1996 from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Out of law school, he joined Husch & Eppenberger (now Husch Blackwell), where he practiced commercial and employment litigation. In 2003, he and Paul Seyferth co-founded Seyferth Knittig (now Seyferth, Blumenthal & Harris), a boutique labor and employment law firm in Kansas City, Missouri.

He left the full-time practice of law in 2008 to become CEO of The Global Orphan Project, a global orphan care and orphan prevention ministry, a position he continues to hold today. GO Project works in 10 countries, including 27 states in the U.S., operating the national CarePortal platform.

GO Project also owns and operates multiple businesses to create jobs that keep families together. The largest is GOEX, a fair trade apparel enterprise wholly owned by GO Project with manufacturing operations in Haiti and the urban core of Kansas City.

His work with GO Project has instilled in him a deep appreciation for the dignity that work provides to individuals and the importance and value of job creators. As an employer himself, he also has a deeper understanding of the issues they face.

As time and travel permit, Joe moonlights with a small mediation practice to help employers and employees resolve disputes.