Settlement Techniques that Give You the Winning Edge

Judge Chaney is a “go to” settlement judge, handling complex multi-party construction, insurance coverage, class action, securities, intellectual property and other high-profile “bet the company” commercial litigation settlement conferences.  She has been on the bench for almost fifteen years. 

In 1994, Judge Chaney was elevated to the Los Angeles Superior Court and was assigned to Department L, a trial court, in West Branch in Santa Monica where she heard both civil and criminal trials. From January 1995 to December, 1995, she was assigned to Department H in South-Central Branch in Compton, presiding in a criminal calendar and trial court. Beginning January, 1996 through December, 1997, Judge Chaney presided over long cause criminal and civil trials in Department L. Commencing January, 1998 to the present, Judge Chaney transferred from Compton to the Department 19 in the Civil Court House, handling a civil direct calendar. Since April 2000, Judge Chaney’s assignment changed to sitting in the Complex Litigation Program in Central Civil West.

Judge John Leo Wagner has 20 years experience in conducting ADR processes. In 1997, he left the Federal bench to become the Director of the Irell & Manella ADR Center, where he engaged in a full-time practice as a neutral.  Currently Mr. Wagner is a hearing officer with the Dispute Resolution Provider, Judicate West.  He previously served for 12 years as a U. S. Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of Oklahoma. He was appointed to this position at age 31, after trying many substantial cases to verdict as a litigation partner with Kornfeld & Franklin. While on the Federal bench, he founded and administered a court-annexed mediation program and served as an ADR neutral, in addition to maintaining a full civil caseload.

Judge Wagner has successfully conducted thousands of mediations and arbitrations. He is well respected for his extensive experience with multi-party settlements and has often been called upon to resolve particularly complex or difficult cases including intellectual property, construction defect, environmental and mass torts, as well as securities and consumer class actions. 

Hon. Alexander Williams, III has served as a Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court since 1984. He was presiding judge for thirteen of his twenty-one years on the bench in a general jurisdiction civil trial department.

A trained mediator, Judge Williams was reassigned in June 2005 to preside over a full-time Settlement Court, where he conducts daily settlement conferences in cases pending in Superior Court.

Judge Williams is Chair of the Judicial Education Subcommittee of the Court’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. Judge Williams graduated from Yale University (cum laude) in 1966 and the University of Virginia School of Law in 1969. A frequent speaker on judicial and dispute resolution matters, Judge Williams is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University School of Law, where he teaches Dispute Resolution.

Les Weinstein has been a full-time neutral for the past  several years.  Mr. Weinstein has a degree in engineering and is a Registered Patent Lawyer authorized to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office.  He continues a limited practice of patent law with Sheldon  Mak Rose & Anderson after 35 years of legal practice.

Mr. Weinstein currently serves as an arbitrator on the AAA’s International, patent and large complex case panels as well as a district court attorney settlement officer.  Mr. Weinstein has arbitrated high-stakes patent and other high-technology cases and mediated the full range of both "hard" and "soft" intellectual property disputes.  

In 1999 he was a DecisionQuest featured trial lawyer in The American Lawyer and The National Law Journal.  For several years he served on the Advisory Committee and presented on various ADR, IP and  competition law related topics at the PricewaterhouseCoopers Litigation Leadership Conferences.

After practicing for nearly two decades as a Harvard Law School educated, AV rated business, real property and employment litigator, Jay McCauley turned his experience and skills in 1998 to that of arbitrating  and mediating complex disputes in those specialties on a full-time basis. He serves as an arbitrator on the Large Complex Case Panel and the Employment Panel of the AAA, as a mediator with Judicate West, and, as an Adjunct Professor teaching Arbitration Law at Pepperdine Law School. 

He is a fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, a member of the California Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, and is listed in the Martindale Hubbell Register of Preeminent Lawyers. As an arbitrator, he follows the practice of adhering even-handedly to the ethos of the Rule of Law, in the more congenial and “user friendly” atmosphere of the arbitration hearing.   Mr. McCauley is a hearing officer with the Dispute Resolution Provider, Judicate West.

Victoria Pynchon turned her considerable analytic skill, business acumen and intuitive talent to a full-time neutral practice after twenty-five years of complex, multi-party litigation practice. 

Ms. Pynchon earned her LL.M in dispute resolution at the prestigious Straus Institute in 2006 and is now an Adjunct Professor there.  In connection with that program, Ms. Pynchon co-mediated mandatory settlement conferences with her co-panelists, Judge Alexander Williams, III and the Hon. Victoria Chaney.  Ms. Pynchon is a neutral with the Dispute Resolution Provider, Judicate West, serves on the insurance coverage specialty panel for the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, and is a Settlement Officer for the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  

Victoria Pynchon is also the author of the Settle It Now Negotiation Blog.

http://www.settlenow.com/