Experience & Practice Areas

MEDIATION EXPERIENCE (1992-PRESENT)

As a mediator and settlement conference judge, I have mediated cases in the following practice types of claims and disputes: personal injury; insurance coverage; commercial contracts; Uniform Commercial Code sales and security interests; lien priorities; corporate and partnership dissolutions; construction defects; homeowners association matters; breaches of residential and commercial leases; breaches of commercial and residential loan agreements; breaches of real estate contracts; real property condition including undisclosed defects such as termites and mold; securities fraud, churning, and unsuitability allegations; breach of contract for sale of a business and related fraud counterclaims; employment issues including claims invoking the Americans with Disabilities Act; environmental issues; special education issues; professional malpractice including medical, real estate agent/broker, securities registered representative/broker, and architect/engineer.

ARBITRATION EXPERIENCE (1990-PRESENT)

As an arbitrator (for private parties, for the U.S. District Court and the Maricopa County Superior Court), I have arbitrated many personal injury and commercial disputes.  They include breaches of contracts for the sale of business and related counterclaims for fraud; lien priority disputes; claims under Articles 2 and 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code; breaches of commercial contracts; personal injury claims; insurance coverage disputes; real estate partnership disputes; breaches of real estate purchase contracts; disputes among partners/shareholders/members of partnerships, corporations, and limited liability companies, respectively; securities claims by customers alleging unsuitability and churning, as well as negligent supervision; wrongful termination of employment; intellectual property and Lanham Act claims; ownership of Internet Websites; interference with contract; breaches of commercial leases; and breaches of commercial loan agreements.

JUDICIAL EXPERIENCE (1987-2005)

I served as a Judge Pro Tempore on the Maricopa County Superior Court, Civil Division.  From January to November 1999, I served in a full-time, paid capacity.  I have presided over more than 75 trials (both bench trials and jury trials) involving claims of ERISA-related professional liability; securities fraud; wrongful repossession; wrongful disposition of consigned property; real property disputes; insurance coverage; civil rights violations; personal injuries in a number of contexts; and professional liability claims.  Approximately 20 of the civil judgments I entered were appealed, and all of them were affirmed.

LITIGATION EXPERIENCE (1980-1997)

As a general civil litigation attorney, I conducted numerous bench and jury trials in both state and federal trial courts, and many appellate cases in the Arizona Supreme Court and Court of Appeals and United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

My litigation experience includes evaluating and litigating commercial loan transactions; foreclosure of security interests on real and personal property; commercial and residential leases and purchase agreements; collection and enforcement of judgments; corporate and partnership disputes; violations of securities laws; construction-related matters; insurance coverage claims; commercial torts; product liability; and personal injury litigation (for both plaintiffs and defendants); professional liability cases including, among others, bank directors, health care providers, lawyers, accountants, architects, and engineers.  

At the appellate level, I have been lead counsel in several reported cases establishing new law including defining the ethical obligations of corporate counsel to investors; providing tort remedies to tenants for a landlord’s violation of statutory standards; elimination of a partnership accounting as a condition precedent to partnership lawsuits; and defining the scope of bank directors’ fiduciary duties.