Hon. John W. Kennedy, Jr. (Ret.) brings to his dispute resolution practice 47 years of experience as a judicial officer and trial attorney. Judge Kennedy joined JAMS after a distinguished 20-year judicial career in several San Bernardino County courts. He served 2 1/2 years as San Bernardino County's first full-time Presiding Judge, presiding over both the Superior and Municipal Courts.

Judge Kennedy also has decades of accounting experience, having worked for his father’s accounting business growing up and later working as an accountant during and after college. That has given him specialized insight into issues that regularly arise during the ADR process.

These issues include computing past and future lost profits, determining the value of income-producing real estate, calculating damages, computing trust distributions between income and principal beneficiaries, analyzing forensic CPA or evaluation testimony, computing allocation of profits between general versus limited partners and other accounting matters involved in business, commercial, insurance, family law and real estate disputes.

ADR Experience and Qualifications

• Extensive experience in handling cases in a wide variety of fields including product liability, medical malpractice, inverse condemnation, wrongful termination, insurance coverage and bad faith, toxic torts, mass torts, premises liability and business disputes; significant experience in business management and accounting
• Spent the last 6 years on the Superior Court handling settlement, law and motion, and trials of complex civil cases; in that assignment, he was responsible for managing and trying the court's longest and most complicated multiple-party civil matters
• Considerable experience in family law, having spent 3 1/2 years as the Supervising Judge of the San Bernardino Family Law Departments and settling more than 1,000 disputes

Representative Matters

• Since joining JAMS in 2000, Judge Kennedy has handled more than 1,500 cases, including:
  • Large class action case involving investor claims against individual trustees in Medical Capital securities litigation
  • High value case involving merger and acquisition group’s breach of contract dispute with national bank
  • Nine-figure arbitration award in Hotels Nevada hotel/casino breach of contract dispute
  • Eight-figure arbitration regarding failure of race track’s artificial surface
  • Multiple cases involving high value condemnation and inverse condemnation cases

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

• Chair, California Presiding Judges, 1999
• Dean, California Judges' College, 1992-1994
• Bernard Jefferson Award, California Judges' Association, 1993
• Associate Dean, California Judges' College, 1990-1991
• Publications include: Personality Type and Judicial Decision Making, ABA Judges' Journal, Volume 37, No.3; California Evidence, Attorneys' Briefcase (co-author)
• "Accounting for Success," Daily Journal, ADR Profile, August 13, 2010
• Taught numerous educational programs relating to decision-making skills to about 2,000 judges nationwide and to 400-500 attorneys at various organizations including The Rutter Group, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Federal Judicial Center, National Judicial College, American Bar Association, California Center for Judicial Education and Research, California Judges Association, California State Bar Association, Pepperdine Law School and Stanford University

Background and Education

• Justice Pro Tem, California Court of Appeal, 1984
• Presiding Judge, San Bernardino County Courts, 1997-1999
• Judge, San Bernardino County Superior Court, 1984-2000
• Judge, California Municipal Court, 1980-1984
• Private Practice, 1963-1964 and 1968-1977
• Deputy District Attorney, San Bernardino County, 1964-1968 and 1978-1980
• J.D., Stanford School of Law, 1963 (Law Review); B.A., Stanford University, 1961