Seattle Family Law Mediator
Erica Knauf Santos
Founder · Managing Attorney · Family Law Mediator
Erica Knauf Santos brings extensive Washington family law experience to a mediation practice focused on identifying the real dispute, evaluating workable options, and helping parties and counsel make productive use of the settlement process.
About Erica
Family law experience informs the room.
Erica Knauf Santos is a Seattle family law attorney, mediator, and founder of Knauf Santos Law, PLLC. Her professional work has centered on Washington family law and the legal, financial, parenting, and practical questions that arise when families are navigating significant change.
Erica received undergraduate degrees from Central Washington University in Psychology and Primate Behavior, with a minor in Anthropology, and earned her law degree from Seattle University.
In addition to her work as a mediator and managing attorney, Erica has served as a Pro Tem Commissioner for King County Superior Court and as a tutor for the Washington State Bar Association Rule 6 Law Clerk Program.
That combination of family-law practice, courtroom perspective, and work with attorneys and parties informs a mediation approach grounded in preparation, realistic evaluation, and clear decision points.
Professional Perspective
Experience from several sides of the family law process.
01
Family Law
Years inside the issues.
Erica’s legal practice has focused on Washington family law, including the parenting, financial, property, support, and procedural questions that often shape settlement discussions.
02
Courtroom Perspective
Understanding what remains if settlement does not happen.
Her work as a King County Superior Court Pro Tem Commissioner adds perspective on how family law disputes are framed, narrowed, and ultimately presented for decision.
03
Neutral Mediation
A different role in the mediation room.
As mediator, Erica does not advocate for either participant and does not decide the outcome. Her role is to facilitate negotiation and help the parties evaluate potential resolution.
In Mediation
Focus on the decisions that actually move the matter.
Clarify
Identify the real disputed issues.
Separate the decisions requiring resolution from the conflict and history surrounding them.
Evaluate
Test options realistically.
Give parties and counsel room to assess proposals, priorities, tradeoffs, risks, and alternatives.
Narrow
Progress does not have to be all-or-nothing.
Resolving some issues or clarifying what remains contested can materially change the path of a case.
Resolve
Build workable agreement where possible.
When agreement is reached, the participants and counsel determine how it should be documented and implemented.
A Clear Boundary
When Erica is the mediator, she is neutral.
Erica is also the founder and managing attorney of Knauf Santos Law. Those roles remain separate.
When Erica serves as mediator, she does not represent either participant and Knauf Santos Law does not represent either side in that mediation.
When Knauf Santos Law represents a client participating in mediation, the parties use another neutral mediator.
Beyond the Practice
Community, family, and animals.
Outside the law, Erica has served as a founding board member of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Cle Elum, organized and directed a Jane Goodall Roots & Shoots College Summit, volunteered with Pasado’s Safe Haven, and assisted with animal rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina.
She and her husband raise their four children in the Seattle area. Away from work, she enjoys travel, fitness, and the logistics familiar to anyone raising a busy family.
Begin Mediation