About
Each of the authors of the IP ADR Blog have their own independent mediation, arbitration, and/or law practices.
More extensive bios than the summaries provided below can be found on our IP ADR Website here.
We are not affiliated with one another in any way except to the extent that we share a mutual respect for one another's experience, knowledge, expertise and creativity. We are not one another's partners, business associates, agents, principals, joint venturers, employees, servants, masters or soothsayers.
We simply share an interest in the negotiation of IP settlements; the arbitration of IP cases; and, the mediation of IP disputes. We each bring a different perspective, different industry knowledge and different legal and ADR experience to bear upon the issues raised by this blog.
PROFILES OF THE IP ADR BLOGGERS BELOW
View Victoria Pynchon's profileVictoria Pynchon is a full-time neutral with IP and insurance coverage specialties at the Southern California ADR firm Judicate West and the renowned International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution. She is also a Settlement Officer with the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Ms. Pynchon spent her legal career litigating "bet the company" antitrust, unfair competition, intellectual property and insurance coverage actions. Her clients have been in the garment and import-export industries, as well as in the health care, entertainment, banking and finance, manufacturing and insurance industries. She is an Adjunct Professor at the prestigious Straus Institute where she received her LL.M. in 2006. Ms. Pynchon received her J.D., Order of the Coif from U.C. Davis School of Law in 1980.
Victoria's Most Recent Publications and Public Appearances:
Ten Settlement Conference/Mediation Traps for the Unwary, November 13, 2007 Douglas County Bar Association Newsletter
Settlement Techniques that Give You the Winning Edge with fellow IP ADR Neutrals and Bloggers the Hon. John Leo Wagner (Ret.) and Les Weinstein (profiles below), Pincus Professional Education Seminars, Los Angeles, November 13, 2007 (soon to be available as a home study course).
ALFA Annual 2007 Labor and Employment Seminar: Point-Counterpoint: the Pros and Cons of ADR with DHL Senior Legal Counsel Joshua Frank and San Diego Employment Litigator James M. Peterson, October 2007 Half Moon Bay, California.
Les J. Weinstein is a patent and antitrust litigator, arbitrator and mediator. Mr. Weinstein, who remains affiliated with the law firm of Sheldon Mak Rose Anderson PC while arbitrating national and international intellectual property cases with the American Arbitration Association. Mr. Weinstein has over 40 years of experience as a trial, counseling and appellate lawyer specializing in patent, copyright and trademark law, as well as the law of competition (antitrust, trade secrets, unfair competition and unfair trade practices). Mr. Weinstein's knowledge of patent law and practices is particularly deep. He is not only registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, he had early experience as a Patent Examiner, before which he worked as an engineer to ITE Circuit Breaker Co. No stranger to the courtroom, Mr. Weinstein worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. under an appointment to the Attorney General's Honor Program. It was there that Mr. Weinstein earned his trial stripes before going on to a long and distinguished private litigation career.
Eric van Ginkel is an international commercial arbitrator and mediator with an IP emphasis. With a background in both transactional and litigation law practices, Eric has been dealing with complex international corporate and business transactions for more than three decades. Eric is an arbitrator and mediator for the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the American Arbitration Association (AAA), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA), and the International Mediation and Arbitration Center (IMAC). He also serves on the Panels of the United States District Court (Central District of California), the Los Angeles Superior Court and the California Court of Appeal (Second Division). In addition to his LL.M. in dispute resolution from the Straus Institute, Eric holds Juris Doctor degrees from both the Law Faculty of Leiden University in the Netherlands and Columbia Law School in New York City. Eric is fluent in Dutch, English, French and German, and somewhat proficient in Italian and Spanish.
Michael Young is an IP litigator with the Los Angeles law firm Weston Benshoof and a commercial and IP mediator with Judicate West and the prestigious International Academy of Mediators. Mr. Young has been mediating cases since 1989, and was the founder and long-time chair of the Neutral Services Department of Weston, Benshoof, Rochefort, Rubalcava & MacCuish LLP. He has extensive experience both litigating and mediating all varieties of intellectual property disputes, with a particular expertise in the area of trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, and restrictive covenants. In addition, in his 20 year legal career, Mr. Young has mediated, litigated, and tried hundreds of disputes involving unfair competition, antitrust, environmental issues (including CERCLA and RCRA cases), and employment claims, among other business disputes. He has further successfully managed and resolved large multi-party and multi-interest disputes involving public entities.
Judge John Leo Wagner, Federal Magistrate (Ret.)
Judge Wagner has been engaged in the settlement and trial of intellectual property disputes for over 20 years. He is currently a full-time neutral with Judicate West Alternative Dispute Resolution, where he mediates and arbitrates all manner of patent, copyright, trademark, trade dress and trade secret disputes.
John was formerly Of Counsel with the Los Angeles-based law firm of Irell & Manella LLP, where he was the head of the firm’s ADR practice group and Director of the firm’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Center. He worked for over seven years as one of the ADR Center’s primary neutrals, settling a myriad of difficult intellectual property disputes.
Before joining Irell & Manella, John served for over twelve years as a United States Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of Oklahoma, where he founded and administered the Court’s mediation program, and served as the resident expert in settling IP disputes.
John has mediated and arbitrated thousands of cases and was recognized as a Southern California Super Lawyer in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution in 2007. He has also been selected for inclusion in he 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the specialty of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
John is the President-Elect of the International Academy of Mediators, a Fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, a Member of the CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s Panel of Distinguished Neutrals and a Diplomate Member of the California Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. John is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Association's ADR Section.
John has been active in guiding national ADR policies and practice for over two decades. He was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist to serve on the Court Administration and Case Management Committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference, where he helped to formulate rules and policies governing ADR programs in the Federal Courts. He also served on the CPR Advisory Committee dealing with Mediation Procedures and the CPR/Georgetown Commission on Ethics and Standards in ADR.
