John B. Bates, Jr., Esq. has been practicing law since 1974 and mediating full time since 1991. He has conducted over a hundred lectures and trainings on mediation and has mediated several thousand matters in 30 states. He splits his time between his family residences in Northern California and Hawaii.

ADR Experience and Qualifications

• Began mediating in mid 1980’s as part of litigation practice
• Co-founded mediation and arbitration firm in 1991 which merged with JAMS in 1994
• Conducted workshops, trainings, and lectures on all aspects of mediation
• Handled several thousand mediations across the U.S. involving aviation, business, civil rights, class action, consumer, construction, employment, environmental, franchise, government/public agency, healthcare, insurance, intellectual property, personal injury, professional liability, real estate, patent and trademark, securities, toxic torts, and wills

Representative Matters

• Business Commercial
• Agricultural disputes
• Construction disputes
• Dealership disputes, including franchises and agencies
• Dissolution of business
• Distributorship disputes
• Employment, including key executive disputes
• Environmental disputes
• Family business disputes
• Fee disputes
• Goods and services disputes
• Insurance coverage disputes
• Intellectual property disputes, including patent, trademark, and unfair competition
• Land use disputes
• Partnership dissolutions
• Real estate disputes, including landlord tenant
• Sales of business disputes
• Shareholder disputes
• Software licensing disputes
• Venture partners disputes
• Work outs
• Class Action & Mass Tort
• Class action consumer case involving airbags in vehicles, settlement
• Class action consumer dispute involving condition of 400,000 vehicles, settlement
• Class action involving disability access to college in California, settlement
• Class action toxic contamination dispute in Alabama, multi-million dollar settlement
• Class action wage and hour case in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Class action business disputes in Missouri, $100 million settlement
• Class action employment dispute in Idaho, multi-million dollar settlement
• Class action invasion of privacy case in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Environmental contamination dispute in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Mass medical malpractice claims in Illinois and New York, $2 million settlement
• Class action deceptive advertising in California
• Employment Law
• Class action employment dispute in Idaho, multi-million dollar settlement
• Numerous wage and hour class actions in California, multi-million dollar settlements
• Dispute involving termination of a highly compensated senior executive in public company in California
• Case involving the termination of founder of venture capital firm in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Numerous class action cases involving discrimination
• Numerous discrimination cases involving race, gender, age, disability, and religion
• Numerous sexual harassment cases, including same sex, minors, and battery involving same
• Numerous wage and hour class actions
• Numerous wrongful termination cases, with intellectual property issues
• Numerous disputes concerning family held businesses and closely held corporations, where disputants were and were not represented by counsel
• Numerous disputes involving high level executives and attendant securities issues
• Engineering & Construction
• Architectural malpractice dispute in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Environmental Law
• Environmental contamination dispute in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Case involving gas pipeline explosion in California, $100 million settlement
• Mass toxic contamination dispute in Alabama, multi-million dollar settlement
• Financial Markets
• Broker dealer disputes
• Claims on notes and guarantees
• Class actions, business, consumer, employment
• Fee disputes
• Investment advisor disputes
• Key executive departures from securities firms
• Loan workouts
• Money manager departures from banks
• Partnership disputes, including venture capitalists, hedge funds
• Shareholder claims and suits
• Governmental & Public Agency
• Numerous business/commercial disputes involving public entities, including government contracts
• Numerous catastrophic personal injury cases with public entity as defendant
• Numerous construction disputes involving public entities
• Numerous eminent domain/condemnation cases
• Numerous employment disputes involving public entities
• Numerous insurance coverage disputes involving public entities
• Health Care
• Numerous health care cases involving HMOs, hospitals, and medical and dental partnerships concerning issues such as insurance payment, reimbursement, and dissolution
• Billing dispute between HMO and hospital in California
• Dispute between HMO and hospital in Nevada
• Dispute between hospital and health care provider regarding reimbursements and setoffs in California
• Dispute between hospital and multiple health care providers in Southern California
• Dispute regarding exclusivity clause in contract between hospital and HMO in California
• Dispute regarding sale of nonprofit hospital to for profit hospital in California
• Dispute between doctors concerning their partnership
• Hundreds of medical malpractice claims and lawsuits involving doctors and hospitals
• Numerous elder abuse claims and lawsuits involving assisted living facilities
• Insurance
• Numerous insurance bad faith disputes in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Bad Faith disability insurance cases
• Brokerage cases
• Indemnity/Subrogation cases
• Insurance Coverage (Life, Disability, Commercial)
• Reinsurance Coverage cases
• Subrogation (Fire, Theft, Vandalism)
• Title Insurance Coverage cases
• Workers Compensation insurance coverage cases
• Intellectual Property
• Class action invasion of privacy case in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Venture capital investment fraud cases in California, multi-million dollar settlements
• Copyright infringement case involving Fortune 500 company settled on confidential monetary terms
• License dispute between Fortune 500 companies resolved, terms confidential
• Patent infringement case with million-dollar settlement
• Software performance and misappropriation of trade secrets case with million-dollar settlement
• Dispute between venture partners settled confidentially
• Dispute on royalties for license of intellectual property settled on confidential basis
• Misappropriation of trade secrets case settled on confidential monetary terms and consent decree
• Multi-party, multi-jurisdictional dispute concerning departure of employees to competitor from Fortune 500 company settled on confidential basis
• Dispute involving software licensing, resolving with a multimillion dollar settlement 
• Personal Injury
• Catastrophic personal injury products liability action in Wyoming, multi-million dollar settlement
• Catastrophic personal injury case involving explosion in California, $20 million settlement
• Wrongful death cases from helicopter crash in the North Atlantic, mediated in New York
• Commercial airlines crash case in southern California, co-mediated $100 million settlement
• Helicopter crash case in Hawaii, multi-million dollar settlement
• Dispute involving disability access to college campus in California, multi-million dollar settlement
• Air crash cases
• Complicated product liability cases
• Construction accident cases
• Defective seatbelt cases
• Electrocution cases
• Gas pipeline explosion, multiple injuries, and deaths
• Medical malpractice cases
• Mining accident involving defective crane
• Plant explosion with deaths
• Rollover cases
• Toxic exposure cases
• Transformer explosion
• Vehicular accident cases involving automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, and highway design
• Wrongful death cases
• Wrongful life case
• Professional Liability
• Legal Malpractice:
• Commercial transactions
• Dissolution of marriages
• Fee disputes
• Personal injury
• Real estate transactions
• Trademark
• Trusts and estates
• Medical Malpractice:
• Mass malpractice cases involving cosmetic procedure in Chicago, New York, and Southern California
• Cases involving surgeries, childbirth, elder abuse, and hospital care
• Failure to diagnose cancer cases
• Pharmacist malpractice cases
• Psychotherapy malpractice cases
• Sexual misconduct between psychotherapist and patient
• Sexual molestation of patient cases
• Real Property
• Brokers disputes
• Competing purchasers of real property
• Condemnation suits
• Contamination to real property, including toxic materials and mold
• Leases on commercial property, including partnership disputes regarding master leases
• Loans secured by real property, including work outs
• Misrepresentations in connection with purchase and sale
• Owner and management of commercial properties
• Real estate commissions
• Title insurance, including coverage, malpractice, and handling escrow instructions

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

• Recognized as an “ADR Champion”, National Law Journal, 2016
• Recognized as a leading practitioner, Alternative Dispute Resolution Category, Who's Who Legal: California, 2014-2017
• Past Vice-Chair of the ADR Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law
• Member of, speaker, and writer for the American Bar Association, American Law Institute, American Trial Lawyers Association, Consumer Attorneys of California, and the Defense Research Institute
• Member of and speaker for the Association of Business Trial Lawyers Association and Tort, Trial, and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association
• Member of the American Health Lawyer Association
• Recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer, ADR Category, 2010-2012
• Among many articles are:
  • "Mediation: An Effective Way to Connect With Your Clients," ABTL Report, Vol. 17 (Summer 2008) and also in the American Bar Association’s The Brief, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Spring 2009)
  • "For Emergency Disputes, Mediation is Cure," Law 360 (2008)
  • "Using ADR to Resolve Superfund and Related Environmental Disputes," California ADR Practice Guide (November 1994)
  • "Getting the Most from Mediation," California Litigation, Vol. 7 (Spring 1994)
  • "Using Mediation to Win for Your Client," The Practical Lawyer (1992)

ADR Profiles

• "From the Get-Go," Daily Journal, ADR Profile, October 2, 2015
• "Bates Has Adjusted Style With ADR's Evolution," The Recorder, ADR Profile, February 16, 2010

Background and Education

• Co-founder, Bates Edwards Group in 1991 that subsequently merged with Endispute and then with JAMS in 1994
• Litigation Partner, Cooley, Godward, San Francisco, 1974-1991
• J.D., cum laude, University of Santa Clara School of Law, 1974
• B.A., with honors, University of California, Berkeley, 1970