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Robert A. Merring is an attorney at law, arbitrator and mediator in Costa Mesa, Orange County, California. He has been engaged in the private practice of law from 1977 to the present in large firms, small firms and solo practice. His principal practice areas include alternative dispute resolution (both as an arbitrator and mediator and as an advocate representing parties involved in alternative dispute resolution proceedings); business and commercial litigation; intellectual property, real estate and general corporate practice. Bob graduated from the Columbia Law School with honors from the Parker Program in International and Foreign Law. He was a Columbia University International Fellow and an editor of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction and departmental honors in political science from Stanford Univerity in 1973. Bob has received Martindale-Hubbell’s highest “AV” rating and is listed in a number of honorary publications, including Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law. An ADR Profile of him appeared in the August 22, 2008 edition of The Loa Angeles Daily Journal, the legal newspaper for the greater Los Angeles-Orange County metropolitan areas. Bob lives in Orange County with his loving wife and two standard poodles, Sami and Champ. He is an active Rotarian and currently serves as the secretary of the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa. For a more indepth description of his background, please consult his resume at www.merringlaw.com/reusme.pdf or his profile on mediate.com at http://www.mediate.com/mediator/details.cfm?id=12764.
Bob has been actively engaged in alternative dispute resolution as an arbitrator since 1993 and as a mediator since 1996. During that time, he has conducted hundreds of mediations and settlement conferences ranging from simple breach of contract matters to complex intellectual property, multi-party and international trade disputes. In addition to being on the arbitration, mediation and large complex case panels of the American Arbitration Association, he serves as an Attorney Settlement Officer for the United States District Court for the Central District of California; a Mediator for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California; a Settlement Officer, Early Neutral Evaluator and Judicial Arbitrator for the Orange County Superior Court and an Arbitrator for FINRA [the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority] Dispute Resolution. He also has his own private alternative dispute resolution practice. A representative sampling of the types of mediation matters he has handled is set forth on his website at http://www.merringlaw.com/adrsummary.htm
Most successful mediators seem to share four common traits: flexibility, patience, perserverance and curioisty. As to the first of these traits, Bob believes that each mediation has its own dynamics, and his "style" may perhaps best be categorized by what Jeff Krivis has described as "improvisational negotiation." In other words, he has no formulaic philosophy and tends to shift between evaluative and facilitative techniques guided by what his experience and "intuition" deem to be the appropriate approach in each situation. In most mediations, he begins with an “open session” allowing the parties and their attorneys free reign to express their own thoughts and feelings, while encouraging them to propose their own solutions to the controversy. Usually, he then breaks into private caucuses to explore with each side not only what they feel would be a desirable outcome but also to express what they think may be the principal barriers to settlement and how those barrieris may be overcome. Statistical surveys have shown that most parties ultimately do want the mediator to evaluate the case, and drawing on his considerable experience as an arbitrator and business lawyer, he tries to guide the parties towards what he feels may be a just and reasonable resolution of the dispute.
Business and Commercial; Intellectual Property; Real Estate; Partnership and Other Organizational Disputes; Insurance Coverage; Employment; Franchise; Antitrust and Unfair Competition; Trade Secrets; Environmental; Securities and General Civil.
American Arbitration Association; American Bar Association; Association for Conflict Resolution; Association of Business Trial Lawyers; Federal Bar Association; Orange County Bar Association (Executive Committee, Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, 2008 to present; Chair, Intellectual Property and Technology Law Section, 2000-01); Orange County Patent Law Association; Southern California Mediation Association; State Bar of California.
Mark W. Eisenberg, eisenberglawgroup@att.net (949) 250-8000 David B. Ezra, dezra@bergerkahn.com (949) 474-1880 Guinevere M. Malley, gguinny@aol.com (909) 336-2526 Alexander E. Papaefthimiou, alex@dglaw.com (858) 509-9401 Robert A. Philipson, raphil@aol.com (310) 917-4554 Robert Scott, rescott20@prodigy.net (951) 273-9730 Justin J. Shrenger, justin@shrenger.com (213) 625-8886
Over two hundred hours of mediation training, as well as an additional one hundred hours of arbitration and early neutral evaluation training, through Pepperdine Law School's Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution; Harvard Program on Negotiation; American Arbitration Association; American Insitute of Mediation; American Bar Association; Association for Conflict Resolution; Global Negotiation Insight Initiative; Southern California Mediation Association; United States District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Central District of California; FINRA (formerly NASD) Dispute Resolution; State Bar of California; California Continuing Education of the Bar; Orange County Superior Court and Orange County Bar Association. For a comprehensive list of the courses he has taken please consult his resume at www.merringlaw.com/resume.pdf.
Clinical Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angles 1981-82. In addition, he has given speeches on ethics in arbitration and mediation, successful mediation techniques, Internet legal issues, and covenants not to compete and non-disclosure agreements. He has also served as a panelist on California Continuing Education of the Bar and LawSeminars.com presentations on protecting trade secrets and confidential business information; real estate practice, and trademark and copyright essentials.
Five Steps (and Several Suggestions) That Lead to a Successful Mediation, Orange County Lawyer 34 (October 2008). The Negotiator’s Fieldbook: The Desk Reference for the Experienced Negotiator, Legal Information Alert (September 2007)(book review). Discovery in Contractual Arbitrations: “What Do You Mean I Can’t Serve Interrogatories?,” Orange County Lawyer 18 (June 2006). O’Connor’s Federal Employment Codes Plus, Legal Information Alert (January 2006)(book review). O’Connor’s Federal Rules - Civil Trials; O’Connor’s Federal Civil Forms, Legal Information Alert (January 2006)(book reviews).
IMI Code of Professional Conduct; Rules of Conduct for Mediators in Court-Connected Mediation of Civil Cases, Cal. R. Ct. 3.850-3.868; AAA/ABA/ACR Model Standards of Commercial Standards for Mediators; California Dispute Resolution Council's Standards for California Mediators
IMI Professional Conduct Assessment Process; Requirements for Addressing Complaints About Court-Appointed Mediators, Cal. R. Ct. 3.865-872
Southern California Mediation Association Insurance Program through Complete Equity Markets Insurance Agency, Inc. and Underwriters at Lloyd's, London. Coverage: $100,000/$300,000