The legal scuffle between New York real estate mogul Donald Trump and the developers of Trump Tower Tampa have found a mediator for settling their licensing dispute outside of court.

Peter J. Grilli, who has mediated more than 3,000 cases from his Tampa office since 1993, was chosen to help resolve the dispute between Trump and SimDag/RoBEL that has been in the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida for nearly a year.

Trump is suing for more than $1 million in licensing fees he says he's owed for Trump Tower Tampa, a proposed 52-story condominium tower on Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa that has yet to be financed. SimDag countersued claiming Trump breached a confidentiality clause in his licensing agreement when he admitted that he was not an actual development partner and instead was simply lending his name and standards to the $225 million tower.

Grilli spent two years as a law clerk for Judge Ben Krentzman in the U.S. District Court in the late 1970s and was a lawyer in private practice between 1979 and 1993. He received his bachelor's degree in American studies from Yale College in 1973 and his law degree in 1977 from Georgetown University, a resume on his Web site says.

A date for the lawsuit to be heard by Judge James D. Whittemore has been set for Feb. 2, 2009. When setting the date, Whittemore ordered that both sides try to settle the case through a mediator by August.

Frank Dagostino, chief executive of SimDag, has maintained that Trump would drop the lawsuit if SimDag secures financing for the 52-story residential tower and pays the money owed to Trump. Dagostino also said the reality television host could possibly consider keeping his name on the building, something Dagostino has insisted is absolutely necessary for the project to move forward.

Last week, Dagostino said that with financing still not secured, he is considering repositioning Trump Tower Tampa as a condo-hotel project.