Herbert Stettin comes to JAMS with over 25 years’ experience providing mediation, arbitration, special magistrate and other alternate dispute resolution (ADR) services in the South Florida region. Mr. Stettin practiced law for over 35 years, specializing in commercial and bankruptcy litigation. Formerly a senior judge, Mr. Stettin served as a circuit court judge in the civil, probate and criminal divisions of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in Miami-Dade County; as a senior circuit judge in the civil division of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida in Broward County; and as an associate judge on the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

With a background as both a jurist and a practicing lawyer, Mr. Stettin’s has a practical understanding of the law, which incorporates and informs his approach to ADR.

Mr. Stettin has mediated and arbitrated more than 2,500 cases, including class actions, derivative claims, fraud claims, insurance coverage issues, commercial matters, construction litigation and bankruptcy disputes. Additionally, he has conducted hundreds of arbitrations, including those involving complex commercial disputes.

Representative Matters

• Bankruptcy
• Chapter 9, Chapter 11 reorganizations and out-of-court debtor representations
• Distressed asset acquisitions
• Breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent conveyance and mismanagement
• Bankruptcy trustees, creditor's committees, and directors and officers
• Prefiling settlements
• Rights of mortgagees
• Single-asset real estate cases
• Bankruptcy jurisdiction, standing and eligibility
• Compensation of professionals
• Contested confirmation of plans of reorganization, including feasibility and liquidation analysis
• Valuation of security, businesses and commercial real estate
• Automatic stay scope, exceptions and relief from stay
• Denial of discharge; exceptions to discharge for fraud, willful and malicious injury, and other grounds
• Estates’ avoiding powers
• Fraudulent transfers and defenses; preferential transfers and defenses
• Equitable subordination
• Recharacterization of debt to equity
• Substantive consolidation
• Involuntary petitions
• Assumption and assignment of leases and executory contracts, including intellectual property licenses
• Business Commercial
• Complex business claims
• Breach of contract, joint venture and other agreement disputes
• Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)
• Unfair competition claims
• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Business and partnership dissolutions and board member disputes
• Breach of warranty claims
• Fraud
• Civil forfeitures
• Commercial foreclosures
• Claims by and against banks
• Unfair and deceptive trade practices

Background and Education

• Mediator, Herbert Stettin Mediations, 2010-2022
• Judge, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, Miami-Dade County
  • Senior Circuit Judge; Civil, Probate and Criminal Divisions; 1999–2010
  • Circuit Judge, Criminal Division, 1978–1979
  • Circuit Judge, Civil Division, 1976–1977
• Senior Circuit Judge, Civil Division, Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, Broward County, 1999–2010
• Associate Judge, Fourth District Court of Appeal, 1978, 1979, 1999
• Attorney, Herbert Stettin, P.A., 1986–1999
• Attorney, Lapidus & Stettin, 1979–1986
• Attorney, Friedman Britton & Stettin, 1964–1975
• Law Clerk to Judge A.O. Kanner, Second District Court of Appeal, 1962–1963
• J.D., University of Miami, 1962
• Associate Editor, University of Miami Law Review, 1961-1962
• M.A., Harvard University, 1958
• B.A., Queens College, 1957