Resume

Mediator | Arbitrator | Referee | Umpire

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.

His experience includes sophisticated, high-value, and multiparty disputes across a broad range of subject areas. His record includes complex groundwater contamination and toxic tort litigation; commercial and technology disputes; class actions; legal malpractice claims involving underlying antitrust and real estate litigation; serious personal injury and wrongful death matters; and complicated real estate disputes involving TICs, HOAs, partition, landlord-tenant issues, and multiple insurers. His judicial and private dispute-resolution experience also encompasses substantial commercial transactions, significant real estate holdings, complex fee disputes, and matters involving considerable financial exposure.

What distinguishes Judge McBride, however, is the combination of that substantive and judicial experience with an ability to connect directly with the people whose decisions ultimately determine whether a case resolves. He prepares by mastering the briefs and underlying facts and ordinarily speaks with counsel before the mediation to understand the likelihood of settlement and the obstacles standing in its way. Once the mediation begins, he focuses on establishing credibility with the decision-makers themselves. Attorneys who have worked with him describe a neutral who listens closely, asks difficult questions productively, makes clients comfortable, and can identify the issues that truly matter.

Judge McBride is comfortable being evaluative, but evaluation is a tool rather than a formula. Twenty-one years on the trial bench allow him to give parties a practical “view from the bench” of how their arguments, evidence, witnesses, and positions may be received by a judge or jury. Rather than simply telling a party that its position is wrong, however, he works to help the party recognize and evaluate the risk for itself. His objective is not to dictate an outcome, but to help parties make informed decisions in light of the uncertainty, expense, and human cost of continued litigation.

That flexibility becomes particularly important at an impasse. Judge McBride does not believe there is a single technique that moves every case. Depending on the dispute and the people involved, he may use candid case evaluation, empathy, humor, personal connection, experience from comparable disputes, or simply time and persistence. He recognizes that modern mediations frequently involve multiple negotiations at once, not only between plaintiff and defendant, but among insurers, co-defendants, attorneys and clients, and other stakeholders whose interests may not be fully aligned.

His approach is informed by an unusual professional path. Before completing law school, Judge McBride served as a San Francisco police officer, an experience he credits with teaching him how to listen to and communicate with people from vastly different backgrounds, including those who may be intimidated, guarded, angry, or distrustful. He later spent six years as a San Francisco Assistant District Attorney, nine years in civil practice, and more than two decades as a judge. Those experiences have reinforced a central principle of his mediation practice: understanding the law is essential, but resolving a case ultimately requires understanding the people involved.

Business & Commercial Disputes
Contract disputes; partnership and business-owner disputes; technology matters; intellectual property-related litigation; antitrust and unfair competition; complex commercial claims.

Real Estate & Landlord-Tenant
Commercial and residential real estate; landlord-tenant; San Francisco rent control and Rent Stabilization Ordinance matters; habitability; TIC disputes; HOA/common-interest developments; partition; co-ownership; purchase and sale disputes; wrongful eviction.

Employment
FEHA claims; discrimination; wrongful termination; disability and accommodation; wage-and-hour disputes; employee classification; meal-and-rest-break claims; employment class actions.

Personal Injury & Tort
Catastrophic injury; wrongful death; premises liability; sexual assault; public-entity liability; dangerous conditions of public property; police misconduct; product liability.

Environmental, Toxic Tort & Mass Tort
Groundwater and drinking-water contamination; chemical exposure; asbestos; Proposition 65; mass torts; complex medical and scientific causation.

Professional & Medical Malpractice
Legal malpractice, including matters requiring evaluation of substantial underlying litigation; medical malpractice; professional negligence.

Insurance
Insurance coverage and multiparty insurance disputes; Insurance Code section 10082.3 appraisal disputes; UIM matters.

Complex & Multiparty Litigation
Class actions; qui tam/False Claims Act matters; trusts and estates; disputes involving multiple parties, carriers, cross-claims, and competing interests.

Attorneys select Judge McBride when a case calls for a neutral who can combine judicial credibility with direct, practical communication. His experience allows him to master complicated records and provide a credible assessment of litigation risk without losing sight of the fact that clients, not the mediator, ultimately decide whether to settle.

His particular strengths include:

• More than four decades resolving disputes, beginning as an attorney in 1979 and continuing through 21 years on the bench and more than a decade as a private neutral.
• Nearly 1,000 matters handled throughout his career.
• A trial judge’s perspective on litigation risk, including extensive civil and criminal trial experience and service in the Superior Court’s Civil Trial and Appellate Divisions.
• Ability to master complex facts and legal issues and focus parties on the issues most likely to drive the outcome.
• Direct communication without unnecessary legalese. Attorneys interviewed by the Daily Journal described him as candid about strengths and risks while still maintaining a kind and respectful demeanor.
• Connection with clients and decision-makers. He considers the ability to establish trust with the person making the settlement decision fundamental to the process.
• Experience with difficult personalities and emotionally charged disputes, informed by his work as a police officer, prosecutor, trial lawyer, judge, and mediator.
• Persistence beyond the mediation session. In matters that do not resolve that day, he generally follows up afterward.

Judge McBride’s mediation style is evaluative, candid, flexible, and highly personal.

Preparation begins before the parties arrive. He reviews the briefs, conducts additional background research when necessary, and considers a pre-mediation conversation with counsel an important part of understanding both the dispute and the barriers to resolution.

During mediation, he works to understand not only the legal positions but the people behind them. He wants the individuals with actual settlement authority meaningfully engaged in the process. He gives parties an opportunity to tell their story, listens for what is driving their decision-making, and uses that understanding to determine how, and when, to confront difficult issues.

His 21 years on the bench also allow him to provide a meaningful reality check. When appropriate, he gives parties his assessment of how a position may fare before a judge or jury. But he distinguishes effective evaluation from simply directing a party to settle: the objective is to help parties see and assess the risk themselves so that the ultimate decision remains theirs.

At impasse, Judge McBride adapts. Empathy may move one party; humor, a comparable experience, additional analysis, or persistence may move another. He does not treat settlement as a scripted process because the barriers preventing resolution are different in every case.

Judge McBride draws a clear distinction between mediation and arbitration. In mediation, his role is to earn the parties’ confidence and facilitate their own resolution. In arbitration, he approaches the assignment as a judge: prepared, decisive, neutral, and focused on reaching a reasoned resolution of the dispute.

Efficiency is central to his arbitration and reference practice. Having managed demanding trial calendars for decades, he expects counsel to focus the presentation on matters that will affect the decision and actively manages proceedings to avoid unnecessary delay or expense.

He also has experience serving as both mediator and arbitrator in UIM matters.

ADR Services, Inc., Mediator, Arbitrator & Referee, 2015-Present

• Handles complex civil matters throughout California and nationwide. His ADR practice has encompassed nearly 1,000 matters across most areas of civil litigation.

San Francisco Superior Court, Judge, 1999-2015

• Presiding Judge, 2009–2010
• Civil Trial Division
• Appellate Division
• Supervising Civil Judge
• Supervising Criminal Judge

San Francisco Municipal Court, Judge, 1994-1999

Civil Litigator, Private Practice, 1985-1994

• Nine years of predominantly business litigation, including intellectual property matters; practiced as an associate, partner, and sole practitioner.

San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Assistant District Attorney, 1979-1985

• Handled criminal prosecutions, including the successful prosecution of Philip Arthur Thompson on gun charges.

San Francisco Police Department, Police Officer

• Served before and during law school, an experience Judge McBride credits with profoundly shaping his understanding of people, conflict, communication, and credibility.

• Charter President, University of San Francisco American Inn of Court, 2001-2003

• J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law, 1979
• B.A., Psychology, cum laude, University of California, Berkeley, 1973

• Barristers’ Choice Award, San Francisco Bar Association, 2003
• Trial Judge of the Year, San Francisco Trial Lawyers, 2001

What types of cases does Judge James McBride mediate?
Judge McBride mediates a broad range of complex civil disputes, including business and commercial contracts, real estate, landlord-tenant and rent-control matters, employment and wage-and-hour claims, personal injury, legal and medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, class actions, environmental and toxic torts, mass torts, antitrust, technology, sexual assault, and other multiparty civil litigation. His experience includes matters involving sophisticated commercial issues as well as highly personal and emotionally charged disputes.

What is Judge McBride’s mediation style?
Judge McBride uses an evaluative but flexible mediation style. Drawing on 21 years on the bench, he is comfortable providing a candid assessment of litigation risk, but his goal is not to dictate a settlement. He works to establish credibility with attorneys and clients, understand what is actually preventing resolution, and help parties make their own informed decisions.

How much dispute-resolution experience does Judge McBride have?
Judge McBride has been involved in settling disputes throughout a legal career that began in 1979. He served 21 years as a San Francisco judge and has spent more than a decade as a private mediator, arbitrator, and referee with ADR Services, Inc. He has handled nearly 1,000 ADR matters since leaving the bench, in addition to the thousands of matters in which he participated in settlement as a judicial officer.

Does Judge McBride handle complex real estate and landlord-tenant disputes?
Yes. Real estate is one of Judge McBride’s principal areas of experience, with particular depth in landlord-tenant and rent-control law, TIC and HOA disputes, partition, co-ownership, habitability, purchase-and-sale disputes, and other commercial and residential property matters. His experience includes judicially supervised partition sales exceeding $30 million as well as complicated disputes involving multiple owners, tenants, subtenants, and insurers.

Does Judge McBride mediate employment cases?
Yes. Judge McBride handles employment disputes involving FEHA, discrimination, wrongful termination, disability and accommodation, wage-and-hour issues, employee classification, meal-and-rest-break claims, and employment class actions. His experience includes claims involving age, disability, and sexual-orientation discrimination.

How does Judge McBride’s judicial experience benefit parties in mediation?
Twenty-one years on the bench give Judge McBride a practical perspective on how evidence, arguments, witnesses, damages, and litigation positions may be perceived by a trial judge or jury. He uses that experience to help attorneys and clients evaluate risk rather than simply telling them what result to accept. His ability to master complex facts allows him to provide that assessment even in factually dense or legally complicated disputes.

How does Judge McBride approach difficult parties or emotionally charged cases?
Judge McBride places considerable emphasis on personal connection and listening. His experience as a police officer, prosecutor, litigator, judge, and mediator has required him to communicate with people across widely different circumstances and perspectives. Attorneys interviewed about his work have specifically noted his ability to make clients comfortable while still asking difficult questions and confronting weaknesses in their positions.

What does Judge McBride do when a mediation reaches impasse?
Judge McBride does not use a single formula for impasse. Depending on the case, he may use direct evaluation, empathy, humor, personal connection, discussion of litigation risk, comparable experience, or simply additional time and persistence. He also recognizes that the apparent dispute between plaintiff and defendant may conceal separate disagreements among insurers, co-defendants, lawyers, clients, or other stakeholders that must be addressed before the overall case can resolve.

Does Judge McBride serve as an arbitrator or referee?
Yes. Judge McBride serves as a mediator, arbitrator, referee, and private judge. His arbitration approach is deliberately different from his mediation approach: as an arbitrator, he draws on his extensive judicial experience to manage the proceeding efficiently, focus counsel on the dispositive issues, evaluate the evidence, and decide the dispute.

Does Judge McBride handle mediations outside San Francisco?
Yes. Although based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Judge McBride is available for matters throughout California and nationwide.