Barbara A. Reeves, Esq., CEDS

Barbara A. Reeves, Esq. is a highly regarded and well-respected mediator and arbitrator. She is a quick study, prepared, personable, creative, and flexible.

As an arbitrator, Barbara Reeves is known to be fair, practical, and not afraid to make tough decisions. As a mediator, she is strong, good at listening and reading people, and a tenacious closer. She is known for her ability to quickly establish rapport with parties and counsel and enable them to recognize their legal risks. She connects and communicates with clients emotionally involved with their positions and ushers parties toward mutually acceptable solutions.

Before becoming a full-time neutral, Barbara Reeves was a litigator for more than 30 years, with the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, a partner at national law firms and Associate General Counsel and Vice President for Southern California Edison and Edison International.

Barbara Reeves is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the College of Commercial Arbitrators, an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a certified mediator with the International Mediation Institute. She is also a certified e-discovery specialist. She received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Representative Matters

Antitrust

• Mediated dispute between competitors involving standard essential patents
• Mediated and served as special master in class actions involving computer components, pharmaceuticals, life insurance and telecommunications
• Mediations involving civil damages actions arising from international cartels and price fixing distribution arrangements
• Mediated disputes involving joint ventures in the healthcare industry
• Served as court-appointed master for discovery and settlement issues in patent/antitrust case involving “patent hopping” in pharmaceutical industry

Business/Commercial

• Mediated trade secrets disputes involving alleged theft of technology, strategic plans, confidential information, and customer information former employees in industries including entertainment, autonomous vehicles, cloud computing, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, electrical equipment, computer chips, sports agency, performance supplements and cannabis.
• Mediated class actions involving credit card privacy statute and the entitlement to attorney fees under Code of Civil Procedure Section 1021.5 (private attorney general statute).
• Mediated breach of contract actions between European sellers of products, including agricultural and technology industries) and U.S. companies.
• Mediated trademark infringement and copyright suits in industries including bio-pharma, medical testing, jewelry, and sports teams.
• Mediated matters involving breakup of professional business corporations and partnerships, termination of a business partner and valuation of the business.
• Mediated disputes involving investment fraud and breach of contract
• Mediated breach of contract actions involving dispute over the proper functioning of products and services involving computer software, hardware and marketing issues.
• Mediated dispute involving the breakup of a failed partnership involving a large commercial property development.
• Arbitrated foreclosure on a construction loan and effect of general contractor’s completion guarantee.
• Arbitrated and mediated matters in connection with breach of contract, mergers and acquisitions, fraud, corporate disclosure issues, franchising, accounting disputes, and partnership dissolution, including professional corporations and partnerships.
• Mediated disputes involving medical billing services and their clients.
• Arbitrated cases involving breach of fiduciary duty between client and investment advisor
• Mediated franchise agreement disputes.

Class Actions

• Arbitrated and mediated class actions involving consumer fraud, antitrust, health insurance, wage and hour, and employment discrimination issues.
• Served as special master in employment and civil rights class action matters.
• Served as special master allocating funds among claimants to a government fund.

Construction and Engineering

• Mediated construction dispute involving large residential developments with environmental issues
• Special master to resolve allocation of payments among subcontractors in a highway construction project
• Mediated dispute by contractors against a public entity arising out of a tunneling operation that encountered unexpected conditions and weather problems
• Handled claims between a public entity and contractor and insurance companies involving nuclear power plant
• Mediated and served as discovery referee in matters arising out of qualified facility power plant construction

E-Discovery

• Court appointed discovery referee for predictive coding process and protocol for e-discovery disputes in various matters, most often involving competition issues and trade secret disputes.

Employment

• Arbitrated and mediated more than 100 matters involving employee termination, disability discrimination, retaliation, wage and hour disputes, sexual harassment, and labor code violations, including wage and hour class actions.
• Mediated and arbitrated disputes arising out of alleged employee theft of trade secrets.
• Arbitrated claims by senior executives of alleged breaches of employment contract.
• Mediated disputes involving allegations of sexual discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive wrongful termination.
• Mediated sexual harassment and discrimination cases involving #MeToo allegations
• Mediated whistle blower claims involving alleged retaliation and wrongful discharge.
• Arbitrated employee termination matters involving sexual harassment and hostile work environment issues, including #MeToo claims.
• Arbitrated wrongful termination cases involving allegations of incompetence and insubordination
• Mediated dozens of ERISA cases.

Energy

• Practiced for many years handling litigation and regulatory matters for electric public utility, alternative energy providers and co-generators
• Successfully mediated disputes in energy industry involving public utility matters, natural gas pricing disputes, cogeneration construction disputes, oil and gas environmental issues, and construction contracts
• Handled disputes involving construction of a biogas facility
• Mediated claims of breach of Power Purchase Agreement between a power company and a renewable power project developer

Entertainment and Sports

• Arbitrated and mediated disputes involving accounting for royalties and contractual payments arising out of television syndications
• Arbitrated and mediated trade secret and employment disputes between studios, new media, and streaming platforms
• Mediated dispute between e-sports team and sponsor
• Arbitrated international dispute between movie producer in U.S. and distributer in China
• Arbitration of disputes involving international investment in movie production and related international tax credits
• Arbitration of dispute between sports agents and promoters in the United States
• Arbitration involving investment by well-known athletic brand in launching products in South America
• Mediation between celebrities involving #MeToo allegations
• Arbitration involving post-production services for an international series of television broadcast episodes
• Arbitrated and mediated disputes between talent and agents, talent and advertisers, and production and distribution companies
• Arbitrated and mediated employment disputes involving employees, on the one hand, and studios, productions companies and new media, on the other hand
• Arbitration between music festival producers involving co-promotion agreement
• Arbitrated and insurance coverage issues arising in the entertainment field
• Mediated claim by owner against an equestrian trainer for misappropriation of proceeds from sale of an elite level show jumper (horse)
• Serves as an arbitrator handling cases in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), including cases involving sports federation governance, doping and interpretation of rules, including equestrian and track and field
• Serves as an arbitrator in numerous SafeSport cases, including the sports of equestrian, weightlifting, track and field, sailing, water skiing, and gymnastics
• Mediated disputes involving exhibitors and venues for athletic events
• Mediated claim by owner against trainer for misappropriation of proceeds from sale of horse
• Mediated Title IX disputes in multiple sports including softball and gymnastics
• Mediated disputes between coaches and athletes
• Mediated claim by athlete against trainer for accounting discrepancies

Equine Law

• Mediated disputes involving purchase/sale agreements and disputes involving show managers and exhibitors/vendors.
• Arbitrated cases before CAS involving federation governance, rule violations and doping.

Health Care

• Contract and reimbursement disputes involving health care joint ventures.
• Arbitrated and mediated laboratory billing disputes
• Arbitrated and mediated disputes between providers and insurers.
•  Arbitrated dispute between a hospital and supplier of nuclear medicine equipment and technical assistance.
• Discovery Referee in qui tam whistle blower case involving drug prices charged to government health care programs. 
• Mediation of False Claims Act cases involving produce sales to the Department of Defense.
• Mediation of False Claims Act cases involving surgical center and non-physician charges.
• Mediation of False Claims Act/qui tam case involving major defense contractor.
• Arbitration of dispute between purchaser and seller of dialysis practice
• Arbitrated major reimbursement disputes between hospitals and health care plans and insurance companies involving issues of reasonable value, Medicare coverage, use of leased networks, stability determinations and alleged inappropriate coding.
• Arbitrated managed care disputes between payers and providers involving contract interpretation, risk sharing, insurance, reimbursement and administrative issues.
• Employment contract disputes between physicians and medical groups or between physicians and hospitals (including covenants not to compete).
• Mediated shareholder disputes with physician practices.
• Mediated disputes between third party vendors, durable medical equipment providers and unauthorized distributors
• Arbitrated accounting dispute over the dissolution of a medical group.
• Arbitrated and mediated Insurance carrier disputes with providers over coding, billing and claims payment
• Arbitrated medical necessity disputes between hospitals and health care plans.
• Arbitrated international contract dispute involving pharmaceutical company and joint venture partner for distribution
• Arbitrated medical malpractice cases covering alleged improper prescribing of medication, improper use of restraints, failure to prevent drug-resistant infections, failure to diagnose cancer and numerous instances of failure to prevent medical condition from deteriorating
• Mediated action challenging a public health citation against a skilled nursing facility for violations leading to a patient’s death
• Arbitrated declaratory relief dispute between major health care providers regarding contract interpretation

Insurance

• Arbitrated environmental coverage disputes, director and officer coverage, healthcare coverage, and professional liability coverage
• Mediation of claims by an insurance company underwriting the business of third party administrator of extended warranty plans
• Mediated disputes involving construction of residential buildings with underlying coverage issues related to alleged defects and/or negligence
• Mediated cases involving alleged bad faith refusal to defend
• Served as neutral to resolve dozens of coverage disputes between FEMA and policyholders arising out of Hurricane Sandy and damage to a variety of structures and whether the damage was covered under existing policies
• Mediated and cases involving the sale of life insurance and retirement policies by a major insurer
• Mediated claims against surety for failure to pay under construction performance bond
• Mediated coverage claims arising out of a major environmental contamination in Southern California
• Mediated disputes arising out applicability of directors and officers liability insurance and cyber breaches
• Mediated claims related to allocation of defense costs among insurers in environmental cases

Intellectual Property

• Mediated numerous trade secret theft cases arising out of misappropriated computer data, hiring away of corporate executives, joint ventures and corporate acquisitions
• Arbitrated theft of trade secret cases in the entertainment industry
• Served as special master and court appointed discovery referee in cases alleging theft of trade secrets in industries ranging from high tech to electrical equipment to entertainment.
• Mediated dispute involving voice recognition patented technology
• Mediated patent dispute involving licensing of technology used in flat screen panels
• Mediated copyright disputes involving music sampling
• Mediated dispute involving biosimilar approval pathway impact of patent term
• Mediated patent dispute involving trade association development of industry standards
• Mediated dispute involving patentability of biological invention using established scientific processes
• Mediated dispute involving patent infringement/invalidity of traffic control technology
• Mediated patent infringement dispute between two online game developers
• Mediated dispute involving patentability of diagnostic method of treatment patent
• Arbitrated joint venture dispute involving the development and marketing of a point-of-care screening test
• Arbitrated dispute between manufacturer and distributor over shoe line designs (included copyright issues and contract issues)
• Arbitrated marketing dispute involving off-label use of patented drug
• Arbitrated contract dispute involving pharmaceutical supply chain performance issues, including patent issues
• Arbitrated dissolution and post-dissolution trademark and contractual claims among members of professional partnership
• Mediated product-hopping dispute involving antitrust and patent issues between patentee and generic drug manufacturer
• Mediated case involving software piracy claims

Professional Liability

• Arbitrated and mediated legal, accounting and medical malpractice claims
• Mediated legal malpractice cases regarding alleged conflicts of interest and multiple representations

Real Property

• Mediated case involving damage to real property, negligence, and insurance issues
• Arbitrated breach of contract case brought by a land owner and developer against major retail company
• Mediated cases involving environmental cleanup liability, contractual indemnification, and real property leasing issues
• Mediated dispute between hotel developer and owner arising out of political unrest in the affected country
• Mediated actions alleging involving enforcement of CC&Rs by homeowners’ association
• Arbitrated and mediated real property purchase/sale agreements, and landlord/tenant disputes

Securities

• Mediated '34 Act class action claims in retail and financial industries
• Mediated securities class action against directors and officers and outside auditor of financial institution 
• Settlement of breach of fiduciary duty claims alleging flawed processes, fraud or fairness of merger transactions
• Arbitration of claims arising out of leveraged buy-out
• Arbitrations and mediations arising out of post-closing adjustment claims

Special Master/Discovery Referee

• Served as court-appointed discovery referee and special master in cases involving electronically stored information (ESI), corporate dissolutions, partnership dissolutions and division of assets, contract disputes, employment discrimination, civil rights, and professional liability