Biography
Jay Folberg Esq., regarded as a pioneer in alternative dispute resolution, has resolved a wide variety of disputes, including estate, probate, and trust matters. In addition to having decades of experience as a mediator and arbitrator, he is particularly skilled at getting to the heart of multifaceted issues and effectively working through complex human factors that often create obstacles to some of the most challenging cases.
Representative Mediations
- Intergenerational family dispute between siblings and their children over use and expense allocation for multi-million dollar estate property
- Contentious dispute between several descendents over stock in closely held corporation that owned large destination resort and thousands of acres
- Inheritance matter in which previously unknown adopted child asserted claim over timber company
- Minority share holder rights dispute between former wife, siblings, and grandchildren over winery established by deceased founder
- Will contest between siblings over validity of change in decedents will that left Victorian home to only one of them, who had provided end of life care to decedent
- Dispute between parents of deceased artist and deceased’s same sex partner over valuable works of art in deceased’s home shared with partner
- Dispute for partition of commercial properties developed by two brothers in Silicon Valley. It was agreed that one brother would propose a division of the properties for the other to choose; dispute settled
Completed Virtual ADR training conducted by the JAMS Institute, the training arm of JAMS.
- Lifetime Achievement Award, American College of Civil Trial Mediators
- Bernard Witkin Amicus Curiae Award for leadership in alternative dispute resolution and outstanding service to the California courts, Judicial Council of California
- Distinguished Contribution to Mediation Award, Mediation Society
- Distinguished Mediator Award, Academy of Family Mediators
- Chair, Ethics Committee, American Bar Association, Section of Dispute Resolution
- Member, American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)
- Chair, Judicial Council Blue Ribbon Panel of Experts on Arbitrator Ethics
- Chair, Judicial Council Task Force on Alternative Dispute Resolution
- President, Academy of Family Mediators
- Chair, Section of Dispute Resolution, Association of American Law Schools
- President, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
- Chair, Oregon State Bar, Family Law Section
- Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust - National Arbitration Panel
- California Court of Appeal Mediation Panel
- Federal Court (NDC) Mediation Panel
- CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals
- JAMS Foundation, Board Chair (Non-profit, charitable foundation)
- JAMS Institute, Executive Director (Training and continuing education)
- Publications:
- Selected Books:
- Mediation: The Roles of Advocate and Neutral, 4th Ed. Aspen (2021)
- Lawyer Negotiation, 4th Ed. Aspen (2021)
- Resolving Disputes: Theory, Practice and Law, 4th Ed. Aspen (2021)
- Divorce and Family Mediation, Guilford Press (2004)
- Mediation: A Comprehensive Guide, Jossey-Bass (1984)
- Selected Articles:
- Arbitration Ethics - Is California the Future? 18 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, Issue 2 (2003)
- Alternative Dispute Resolution: An Empirical Analysis, 46 Stanford Law Review 1487 (1994)
- Use of ADR in California Courts: Findings and Proposals, 26 USF Law Review 343 (1992)
- Experience as a litigator of commercial and insurance cases (Rives & Schwab, now Stoel Rives), as well as civil rights, education, consumer related disputes, including class actions, in state and federal courts (founding Executive Director of Oregon Legal Services)
- As a professor, taught trial practice, civil procedure, family law, and ADR courses at the University of San Francisco (Dean 1989-1999), Northwestern School of Law - Lewis and Clark College, the University of Washington, and the National Judicial College
- Extensive experience as a judge pro tem
- J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law (formerly Boalt Hall School of Law), 1968
- B.A. (Economics and Finance), California State University, San Francisco, 1963
Counsel Comments
- “[Jay possesses] the temperament and patience that made it possible to settle an extremely complicated and contentious issue. Without you, there simply would not have been a deal.”
-Chairman of prominent Bay Area non-profit organization
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Practice Areas
- Business/Commercial
- Construction Defect
- Education/Schools
- Employment
- Environmental
- Estates/Probate/Trusts
- Family Law
- Governmental/Public Agency
- Higher Education & Title IX
- Professional Liability
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