Employment History

Full-time Arbitrator and Mediator, 1994–Present.

Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Chief Operating Officer and Director, URS Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange-listed professional services company engaged in engineering, architecture, project management Government procurement and environmental sciences in the U.S. and internationally, 1987–1994. Concerned with the management of a number of financial restructuring transactions, negotiation and responsibility for placement of the company’s insurance policies (E and O, Officers and Directors, GCL, etc), government procurement issues, SEC and shareholder issues.

Trial lawyer California and Hawaii, 1967–1987.

Legal Education:

Master of Laws, University of London.

Juris Doctor, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley.

Mediation:

Mediated over 1,500 major construction, intellectual property and complex commercial disputes in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Australia relating to vertical (buildings, including hotels and hospitals), horizontal (highways, bridges, and transport systems) and subsurface projects as well as power systems and process plants. Also have arbitrated and mediated a variety of intellectual property, commercial, banking and finance, insurance, employment, information technology and energy related disputes.

Member, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre and Hong Kong Government’s list of approved and qualified mediators.

Taught basic and advanced arbitrator training courses for the American Arbitration Association; taught basic and advanced mediator training courses for the Australian Commercial Disputes Centre, Sydney; and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre. Has lectured and written extensively on the subject of ADR.

Extensive experience in international and multi-party disputes both as arbitrator and mediator.

Representative Commercial Cases Arbitrated

Claim for fraud and breach of trust brought by Mexican bank against Swedish bank and U.S. investment banking firm.

Dispute between insurance master broker and sub-broker pertaining to claims for breach of fiduciary obligations, breach of trust and breach of contract.

Claim to rights under development agreement to license relating to patented technology for laser filters and modulators with application to the telecommunications industry.

Dispute between energy producer and major power purchaser concerning apportionment under contract formula for shared transmission costs.

Dispute between fuel supplier and energy producer concerning cost of fuel under supply contract containing pricing methodology.

Dispute between design-build contractor and owner of cogeneration plant concerning alleged breach of plant performance guarantees.

Dispute pertaining to NAFTA preferences for certain products and responsibility between manufacturer and exporter for payment of duties for products not so qualified.

Dispute between buyer and seller concerning responsibility for environmental cleanup of 36 agricultural chemical sales facilities. Another, similar dispute involving a steel fabrication plant.

Dispute concerning valuation of stock in a closely held investment bank.

Multiple construction arbitrations (details in specialized resume) dealing with defects, contractor claims and professional negligence, many involving insurance coverage issues pertaining to professional liability, builder’s risk or general liability policies.

Dispute concerning right to terminate license for manufacture and sale of vaccines and rights to intellectual property.

Dispute between buyer and seller of product division concerning continuing obligation of seller to manufacture optical devices that were subject to the sale.

Dispute between franchisees and franchiser arising out of the purchase of original franchisees business and alleged failure of purchaser to support franchisees of acquired company.

Copyright infringement claims concerning specialized teaching materials involving complex issues of originality, and derivative works.

Representative Commercial Cases Mediated

Dispute between seller and purchaser of 15 Hydro-electric generation facilities pertaining to allegations of breaches of warranties, representations and fraud in the inducement.

Dispute between mobile phone manufacturer and licensor of chip technology alleging fraud and breaches of representations and warranties in license agreement;

Dispute involving “look back” accounting under acquisition agreement relating to purchase of division manufacturing secret missile components.

Multiple disputes arising out of the sale and acquisition of a variety of businesses including health-care, defense, software development and manufacturing and information technology.

Mediated multiple disputes between software developers and a variety of businesses concerning contracts for development of software (works for hire) pertaining to a wide variety of businesses (inventory controls, project management, telecommunications, etc.);

Class action suits against California banks relating to overdraft charges. Settlement involved complex issues concerning quantum, class definition, and methodology for assessing damages of individual class members.

Dispute between German and Israeli technology firms arising out of their joint venture manufacturing and sales business in the U.S. each side claiming breach of the J.V. agreement and asking for dissolution of the partnership.

Dispute between shareholders of a family-held heavy equipment distribution business. Buyout by one sibling involved resolution of complex financing and tax issues and agreement with equipment manufacturer.

Dispute between U.S. manufacturer and its fidelity bond insurer involving coverage under the bond for damages suffered as a result of defalcation by employees in Turkey.

Dispute between insured and insurers arising out of disputed coverage under the applicable policy for losses suffered by insured in the Philippines.

Disputes between software manufacturer and some of its former distributors concerning their rights on termination of distributorship agreements.

Dispute between Japanese, German and Italian banks arising out of loan syndication agreement and treatment of office building acquired by them through borrower default.

Mediated several separate healthcare industry disputes including cases between HMOs and Hospitals and Medical Groups concerning entitlement and amount of capitation payments and issues arising from the termination of agreements.

Dissolution of partnership owning several franchised fast-food restaurants. Partners alleged breach of partnership agreement fraud and self-dealing.

Various environmental clean-up disputes including both allocation between PRP’s and insurance coverage issues.

Various intellectual property disputes including patent rights and copyright issues involving various technologies and processes.

Mediated many multi-party disputes, some involving as many as 50 parties.

Film financing dispute between insurer, broker, film producers and distributors.

Dispute between main contractor and subcontractor arising out of subcontract to furnish certain hardware and software for fair collection and accounting for a London transit system. In addition, have mediated a number of disputes concerning fitness for purpose of hardware or software developed as work-for-hire.

Dispute between two pharmaceutical companies arising out of the Japanese clinical trials of a drug and the alleged failure of one of them to bring the trials to successful fruition.

Professional Licenses

All State and Federal Courts in California and Hawaii