Hon. James McBride

Hon. James J. McBride (Ret.) brings more than four decades of experience resolving disputes as a prosecutor, civil litigator, trial judge, Presiding Judge of the San Francisco Superior Court, and private neutral. Although he joined ADR Services, Inc. after retiring from the bench, Judge McBride traces his dispute-resolution experience to the beginning of his legal career in 1979. He has spent 21 years on the bench and more than a decade in private dispute resolution, handling nearly 1,000 matters as a judge, mediator, arbitrator, and referee.

Judge McBride’s breadth is a defining feature of his practice. During nine years as a civil litigator, he primarily handled business and commercial disputes, including intellectual property matters. His 21-year judicial career included service in the Civil Trial Division and Appellate Division of the San Francisco Superior Court, as well as supervising both the civil and criminal courts and serving as Presiding Judge during the Great Recession. Since entering private ADR, he has handled matters spanning business and commercial contracts, real estate, landlord-tenant and rent control, employment and wage-and-hour, class actions, personal injury, legal and medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, mass and toxic torts, environmental contamination, sexual assault, technology, antitrust, and other complex civil litigation.