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General Biography
Practice Areas
Business Commercial
Construction Defect
Estate Probate Trusts
Governmental & Public Agency
Intellectual Property
Personal Injury
Real Property
Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities
Background and Education
Hon. James L. Smith (Ret.) retired from the Orange County Superior Court after two-and-a-half decades on the bench to become a full-time arbitrator, mediator, and discovery referee. In addition to serving two terms as Presiding Judge of the court, Judge Smith was Presiding Judge of the Probate Department, Supervising Judge of the Criminal Panel. Throughout his time on the bench, he was assigned to the Complex Litigation Panel, Family Law Panel, Criminal Trial Panel, Law and Motion, Civil Trials, Juvenile Court, and General Trials.
The breadth of Judge Smith's experience is one of the strengths he brings to the table as a neutral. He presided over thousands of settlement conferences and trials as a judge, and, since joining JAMS, has worked on thousands of cases as an arbitrator, mediator, or discovery referee, with special expertise in resolving complex cases. Highly regarded among counsel, Judge Smith is known for his extensive preparation before each matter that gives him more time to work with parties to craft creative and efficient resolutions to their disputes.
Representative Matters
Arbitration
Extensive experience arbitrating wide variety of complex disputes, both as sole arbitrator and on tri-panel matters
Business Commercial
Arbitrated and mediated numerous business-related disputes, including matters involving breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and fee collection issues
Served as special master and reference, for either discovery or accounting purposes, on numerous business and commercial disputes
Construction Defect
Served as mediator and court reference on several disputes involving construction defect issues
Estate Probate Trusts
Served as arbitrator, mediator, special master and discovery referee on disputes arising out of estate, probate and trust matters
Governmental & Public Agency
Binding arbitration involving dispute over 10-figure government contract for military hardware
Intellectual Property
E-Discovery referee on patent lawsuit filed against several large Internet-based companies
Mediated patent dispute involving decedent’s license for complex electronic products
Settled copyright infringement dispute involving security system for computer networks
E-Discovery referee for many large federal disputes
Neutral evaluator for several intellectual property claims
Personal Injury
Mediated and arbitrated numerous personal injury disputes involving premises liability, product liability, automobile collision, wrongful death, and environmental pollution issues
Real Property
Extensive experience resolving disputes involving real estate issues
Special expertise in handling homeowners association matters
Arbitrated several disputes between Homeowners Associations and service companies for failure to perform
Disputes related to violations of Homeowners Association CC&Rs
Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities
Completed Virtual ADR training conducted by the JAMS Institute, the training arm of JAMS.
Chair, Presiding Judges Advisory Committee to the Judicial Council, 1995
Governing Board, Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER), 1986-1992
Judicial Criminal Advisory Committee on Trial Court Coordination, 1974-1978
President, Orange YMCA Board of Directors, 1964-1973
Member, Executive Committee, Orange County Superior Court, (7 years, not continuously)
Professor, Western State University College of Law, 1972-1989; (teaching Trial Practice, Trial Advocacy, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Introduction to Legal Education)
Member, faculty of numerous programs presented by the Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER) and the California Judges Association (CJA)
Taught at the California Judicial College and has served as Team Leader of the Large Court section of the Presiding Judges Institute presented by CJER
Participated in numerous CEB programs on various subjects including E-Discovery, Bias In the Workplace, Arbitration Procedures, Effective Mediation Practices, Managing Mental Health and Evidence
Served as instructor in Criminal Law for the Orange County Peace Officers Academy
Judge, Orange County Superior Court, 1980-1995 (Presiding Judge, 1994-1995; Assistant Presiding Judge, 1991-1994; Complex Litigation Panel, 1992-1993; Presiding Judge, Probate Dept. 1987-1988; Supervising Judge, Criminal Panel, 1984-1985; Family Law Panel, 1982)
Judge, West Orange County Municipal Court, 1971-1980
Sole practitioner with emphasis on litigation, 1967-1971
Partner with Schlegel, Friedemann, Kelley & Smith, 1964-1967
Deputy District Attorney, County of Orange, 1963-1964 (founded Fraud Div., 1964)
Admitted to the California Bar and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1963
LL.B. (JD), Hastings College of the Law
B.A., University of Redlands
Counsel Comments
“[Judge Smith was] able to take the cares and sorrows of interesting, sometimes very complex, clients and communicate to them that their outcome would be just.” - Prominent OC Attorney
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Counsel Comments
- Prominent OC Attorney