Gary S. Davis, Esq. has over 43 years of civil trial attorney experience, representing the interests of plaintiffs as well as defendants, with clients ranging from individuals, to self-insured defendants to insurance companies, public entities, and other large corporations. He has spent the last decade serving as a neutral mediator, arbitrator, and/or discovery referee, and has earned a stellar reputation based on his fairness and ability to focus on important issues, while recognizing and respecting the issues of all sides. He is considered adept at being able to bring parties together in extremely difficult situations and having them reach a consensus. He brings a fair, optimistic, energetic, and patient approach to ADR.
ADR Experience and Qualifications
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Conducting mediations since 1993 involving a wide variety of matters including business commercial, employment, family law, government/public entities, insurance, intellectual property, personal injury, and professional liability issues
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Well experienced as a mediator and/or arbitrator in handling matters involving national interest, and cases which involve catastrophic injuries and/or claims or substantial damages
Representative Matters
- Business Commercial
- Resolved numerous commercial business disputes including significant breach of contract or collection cases
- Employment
- Successfully mediated and arbitrated claims of sexual harassment including claims brought by same-sex litigants; jail employees against supervisors; and racial discrimination and wrongful termination claims brought by minority employees against a public entity
- Successfully mediated multiple wrongful termination cases as well as discrimination claims in nature of claimed gender, age, disability discrimination. In addition, concluded claims based on allegations of violations of California Equal Pay Act. Cases have involved international and Fortune 500 companies as well as small businesses
- Family Law
- Experience facilitating complicated divisions of property and support rights, particularly in emotionally charged matters
- Government/Public Entities
- Provided ADR services involving multiple claims against public utilities including resolution of claims from catastrophic burns, damages resulting from black-outs, general claims against public agencies from dangerous conditions
- Experienced litigator, mediator, and arbitrator with governmental entities under the California Tort Act, including allegations of dangerous conditions on public property (streets, highways, and guardrails) resulting both from design and/or maintenance defects
- Successfully concluded claims of violations of civil rights, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and/or unlawful imprisonment made against governmental entities
- Experience with claims brought against a public entity for actions by an off-duty law enforcement officer who, in the guise of making a traffic stop, assaulted a private individual
- Insurance
- Successfully mediated a case which at trial had resulted in a multi-million dollar verdict. The case was mediated when it was on appeal with a petition pending before the California Supreme Court. The matter was concluded only after multiple mediation sessions involving a comprehensive analysis of both the merits of the claims as well as the trial and appellate and insurance issues
- Intellectual Property
- Successfully concluded disputes, including discovery referee matters, involving allegations of violation of trade secrets and non-competition agreements
- Successfully resolved a matter brought by an out-of-state corporation against former employees resulting from allegations of appropriation of dog-training methodology, violation of non-competition agreements, and appropriation of client list
- Personal Injury
- Mediates cases involving all aspects of personal injury torts, including claims of catastrophic injuries, brain damage, paralysis, burns, and wrongful death
- Successfully resolved a case involving allegations of hypoxic brain damage caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from equipment furnished by a national rental firm
- Successfully resolved claims against national manufacturers for death, brain damage, and catastrophic burns
- Numerous mediations and arbitrations of elder care disputes involving allegations of negligent care, malpractice for failure to follow a doctor’s orders, and wrongful death
- Successfully mediated claim brought by a teenage student who lost his arm in a school sponsored and supervised tug-of-war contest
- Professional Liability
- Resolved claims arising out of the death of a psychiatric patient hospitalized with mental problems who died after jumping out of a hospital window
- Successfully resolved medical, dental and legal professional liability cases. Medical cases include failure to diagnose cancer, deaths, surgical injuries, improper radiation of pregnant patient, psychiatric negligence as well as birth injuries
- Worked with leading plaintiff and defense lawyers in both Northern and Southern California