Hon. Jeffrey S. Brand (Ret.)
Hon. Jeffrey S. Brand (Ret.) has decades of legal experience as a judge, civil litigation practitioner and dean of the University of San Francisco School of Law. Throughout his career, Judge Brand has presided over and litigated a wide range of complex disputes and has 20-plus years of international experience, providing alternative dispute resolution trainings in civil law countries.
Judge Brand served on the Alameda County Superior Court for over nine years. While on the bench, he chaired the court’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee and served as the supervising judge for the General Civil Department and as a civil trial judge. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was the dean of the University of San Francisco School of Law for 14 years, and before that, he was a professor of law, teaching courses in civil procedure, evidence, remedies, labor law, constitutional law and practical skills training.
As an attorney, Judge Brand maintained a general civil practice, with a focus on labor and employment law, including federal and state employment discrimination class actions and cases involving hiring, promotion and wrongful termination issues. His experience also includes sports law, having served as the managing general partner and general counsel for the Reno Silver Sox, a minor league baseball team in the Class A California League. In addition, he founded and served as editor-in-chief of the Federal Litigator, a legal journal analyzing federal rules and practice cases.
Throughout his career, Judge Brand has been noted for his fair and even-handed approach to his cases, his diligent preparation, his understanding of the issues and his ability to work with parties to creatively resolve cases before trial.
Representative Matters
- Agribusiness & Food Law
- Served as an administrative law judge for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), resolving election and unfair labor practice disputes between agribusiness entities and unions
- Business Commercial
- Presided over large breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation and indemnity cases in multiple contexts, including commercial leases, partnership agreements and the sale of goods
- Presided over breach of government construction contracts
- Presided over dissolution of business entities, including corporations and partnerships
- Presided over cases involving shareholder and board of director disputes, violations of noncompete agreements, and disputes involving stock option backdating, accounting and valuation of businesses, as well as breach of fiduciary duty and fraud claims
- Presided over cases involving Fortune 500 companies, including biotech companies
- Construction Defect
- Presided over numerous disputes between contractors, subcontractors and purchasers involving various construction defect claims
- Presided over multiple disputes involving single-family home construction defect disputes
- Presided over and resolved large national plumbing defect case involving coverage, indemnification, bad faith and attorneys’ fees issues
- Education Law
- Presided over cases involving public school districts and private schools, including issues relating to harassment, bullying, and hiring, promotion, termination and tenure issues
- Employment Law
- As an attorney, litigated and tried large Title VII class actions, involving race, sex, national origin and age discrimination claims, as well as individual claims brought pursuant to FEHA and Title IX, particularly in the context of public higher education institutions involving claims of sex, race and age discrimination
- Presided over promotion, hiring and wrongful termination matters, including sex, race and disability discrimination
- Presided over employment breach of contract disputes, including retaliation, constructive termination, whistleblowing and trade secrets
- Presided over and approved settlements pursuant to PAGA and tried PAGA claims and individual wage and hour claims
- Insurance
- Presided over first- and third-party insurance coverage disputes, including excess policy coverage
- Presided over, and as an attorney litigated, claims handling and bad faith coverage disputes
- Presided over resolution of Brandt attorneys’ fees disputes
- International & Cross Border
- Full familiarity with common and civil law legal traditions, having trained judges in multiple civil law countries, including Cambodia and Vietnam (working with Vietnam’s Supreme Court)
- Provided dispute resolution training in Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia (creation of a dispute resolution center) and East Timor
- Assisted in the development of law schools, law curricula and legal education materials in Cambodia
- Created materials and taught practical skills seminars on labor law, administrative law and decision-making in the courts in Vietnam and Cambodia
- Personal Injury
- Presided over large catastrophic injury cases
- Presided over large, multiparty asbestos, talc and benzene exposure cases involving multiple industries
- Presided over multiple products liability cases
- Presided over multiple types of other civil cases, including premises liability, motor vehicle accidents and related uninsured and underinsured motorist issues, government immunity, dangerous dog, and slip and fall
- Presided over restraining orders for civil harassment, domestic violence and elder abuse
- Professional Liability
- Presided over numerous medical, dental and legal malpractice claims
- Real Property
- Supervising judge for entire landlord/tenant calendar of Alameda County, including overseeing and conducting hundreds of settlement conferences involving landlord/tenant issues, such as unlawful detainer, habitability, and breach of residential and commercial lease claims
- Presided over and resolved matters involving real estate contracts
- Presided over actions involving HOAs
- Presided over quiet title actions, including those involving family trusts
- Presided over claims of negligent misrepresentation against real estate appraiser
- Presided over disputes involving easements, wrongful foreclosures, buyers, sellers, agents and neighbors (violation of view ordinances and requests for retraining orders)
Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities
- State Bar of California, 1970
- State Bar of New York, 1970
- California Judges Association, 2015–2024
- Alameda County Bar Association, 2015–2024
- Distinguished Professor, University of San Francisco School of Law, 1985, 1987, 1995, 1999
- One Justice Pursuit of Justice Award, 2013
Background and Education
- Judge, Alameda County Superior Court, 2015–2024
- Co-Chair, ADR Committee, Alameda County Superior Court, 2019–2023
- Supervising Judge, General Civil Department, 2017–2019
- University of San Francisco School of Law
- Dean, 1999–2013
- Professor of Law, 1984–2014
- Founder and Chairman, Center for Law and Global Justice, University of San Francisco School of Law, 1996–2013
- Managing General Partner and General Counsel, Reno Silver Sox (a minor league baseball team in the Class A California League, which at various times was affiliated with the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners), 1990–1997
- Founder and Publisher, Federal Litigator (a legal journal analyzing federal rules and practice cases published 10 times per year), 1984–1993
- Partner, Farnsworth, Saperstein & Brand, 1979–1984
- Administrative Law Judge, Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), 1976–1978
- Partner, Harrison & Brand, 1974–1976
- Trial Attorney, Office of the Public Defender, Contra Costa County, 1971–1974
- Robbins Fellow, University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), 1970–1971
- J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), 1969
- B.A., History, University of California, Berkeley, 1966
- Phi Beta Kappa
Selected International Development and Rule of Law Experience
- Co-Director, Cambodia Law and Democracy Project, 1993–2002
- Developed independent law schools, law curricula and legal education centers
- Judicial trainings for general decision-making in the courts and training of judges for war crimes tribunals
- Judicial Training, Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 1999
- Training and Law Curriculum Development, Hanoi Law University and Ho Chi Minh City College of Law, Vietnam, 1995–2003
- Various symposia and lectures in Vietnam in conjunction with USAID-STAR project, focusing on labor law, negotiation and mediation, and legal education
- Participated in USAID projects in Indonesia and East Timor focused on legislative drafting and mediation and dispute resolution, 1996–2000
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