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Jay Folberg

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Home Office: San Francisco, California View More
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Jay Folberg, former Dean at the University of San Francisco School of Law, has resolved complex disputes on a wide variety of subjects. Considered one of the founders of ADR practice with decades of experience as a mediator and arbitrator, he is particularly skilled at getting to the heart of multifaceted issues and dealing with the human factors that create obstacles to settlement.

ADR Experience and Qualifications

  • Successfully mediated multi-party institutional and public policy disputes, complex business, education related, employment, healthcare, construction, housing, environmental, land use, estate and probate, family, intellectual property, non-profit organizations, partnership, civil rights, and sexual harassment cases
  • Trained judges and lawyers in mediation throughout the world and has extensive international ADR experience
  • Authored several books and numerous articles on ADR

Representative Matters

Business Commercial

  • Corporate restructuring based on minority shareholders' suit
  • Complex trade secrets, unfair competition claims and cross claims between major nonprofit healthcare organizations
  • Dissolution of family business, including federal libel and slander claims
  • Fraud and breach of contract claims involving sale of car dealership
  • Trade secrets and unfair competition claims between biotech companies regarding testing methods, evaluation protocols, and marketing strategies for cancer treatment

Education Law

  • Faculty disability and age discrimination cases
  • Special Education disputes
  • Tenure, promotion, and dismissal cases
  • Title IX sexual harassment and sports discrimination claims
  • Class action by Native Americans against school closure

Employment Law

  • Employment discrimination and sexual harassment claims against major companies and federal agencies
  • Wrongful termination claims of executive employment contracts

Environmental Law

  • Environmental conflict involving water quality and CEQA issues for a large residential development
  • Land use and traffic impact dispute between municipality, county, and environmental groups regarding residential development involving over 8,000 new homes

Estate Probate Trusts

  • Contentious dispute between descendents over stock in closely held corporation owning a destination resort
  • Intergenerational family dispute between siblings and their children over use and expense allocation for multimillion dollar estate
  • Multi-party dispute over descendant’s family trust

Family Law

  • Divorce, family, and intergenerational conflicts of all types
  • Child custody and parenting disputes

Governmental & Public Agency

  • Civil rights and discrimination claims - individual and class actions
  • Federal housing discrimination suit involving multi-unit residential units
  • First amendment and false arrest claims by protestors against private and public theme park and entertainment facilities
  • Public policy conflict between State of California and county energy assistance programs over allocating an ongoing $70 million a year federal grant

Professional Liability

  • Legal ethics and malpractice claims against attorneys

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

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)

Background and Education

  • 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

Virtual & In-Person Locations

Home Office

  • San Francisco, CA

Available to Travel To

  • Sacramento, CA
  • Santa Rosa, CA
  • Silicon Valley, CA
  • Walnut Creek, CA

Virtual hearings available nationwide

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