Betty Boop is an enduring animated character with legions of fans.

Mark Fleischer, whose grandfather Max Fleischer created the so-called “Queen of Cartoons,” hopes to attract a similarly loyal following within the legal community as he steps into his new role as mediator and arbitrator.

This fall, Fleischer joined Los Angeles-based Alternative Resolution Centers after a career that included work as a transactional attorney and studio executive.

“I think one of my highest and best uses is that of a peacemaker,” Fleischer says. “There’s enough strife and conflict in life.”

Because he just started building his own practice, he doesn’t have a track record. And while litigation is the bread and butter of neutral work, his background is on the transactional side of entertainment law.

But that shouldn’t be held against him, according to colleagues who have sat on the opposite table from Fleischer.

“I think he’ll do a great job,” says Stephen Scharf of Los Angeles’ O’Melveny & Meyers.

Scharf estimates that he’s negotiated a half dozen deals with Fleischer, whom he considers smart, hardworking and knowledgeable about the Hollywood industry.

Fleischer hopes to create his neutral niche in entertainment-related matters.

“He’ll get to what the real issues are in a really, really quick manner,” Scharf says. “He’ll have the respect of all the parties involved.”

Fleischer brings to the table his experience as a partner at Los Angeles’ Manatt Phelps & Phillips, where he worked for 10 years. He specialized in negotiating financing, distribution and talent deals in the entertainment industry.

He left the firm in 1995 to join the executive ranks of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, where he served as deputy general counsel.

In 1999, he turned to managing the family business, Fleischer Studios, which owns the rights to Betty Boop. Licensing and merchandising her image, in everything from clothes to toys to slot machines, adds up to more than $1 billion in annual revenues worldwide, he says.

While handling the affairs of the cartoon icon with the ultrashort skirt, Fleischer served three years as managing partner at the Century City office of New York-based Squadron Ellenoff Plesent & Sheinfeld, He stayed on for another year after Washington, D.C.’s Hogan & Hartson acquired Squadron Ellenoff in early 2002.

“I like being busy,” Fleischer says.

He stepped down from Hogan & Hartson in January to focus on business opportunities for Betty Boop.

Now he’s ready for a new challenge: alternative dispute resolution.

Despite his lack of experience with mediations and arbitrations, Fleischer says he’ll make a smooth transition as a neutral.

His fee is not fixed yet, he says. But he’ll probably charge $400 to $500 per hour.

“I’ve spent my entire career brokering deals,” he says. “I bring people together. They Know me as a closer.”