Background

After practicing since 1980 as a Harvard Law School educated, AV rated trial and appellate lawyer, Jay McCauley turned his experience and skills to full-time mediation and arbitration in 1998. He has had extensive training at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, and now teaches as an adjunct professor at that Institute. He serves on the Large Complex Case Panel as well as the Employment panel of the American Arbitration Association, where he has handled a broad range of disputes, including several whose value has exceeded $50 million. He also serves as a mediator with Judicate West, where he specializes in the resolution of complex business, employment and real property disputes.

Mediation Practice

As a mediator, Mr. McCauley has earned a reputation for coming to each assignment well prepared, and for applying the resourcefulness, persistence, and integrity needed to be effective. He finds special satisfaction in finding options to resolve cases thought to be intractable. An attorney representing a party in one such case recently wrote, “What a surprise!” then went on to express “thanks and congratulations on a settlement I certainly would never have expected to occur.” Some sense of the nature of Mr. McCauley’s approach to his practice is set forth in the pages to this website entitled “Common Barriers to Settling Cases,” and “What is Special about Mediating Class Actions.”


Arbitration Practice

In addition to his work as a mediator, Mr. McCauley also serves as an arbitrator on several panels, including the highly selective "large complex case panel" of the American Arbitration Association, and also serves as an AAA sponsored trainer. As an arbitrator, he follows the practice of adhering to the ethos of the Rule of Law, in the more congenial and "user friendly" atmosphere of the arbitration hearing.

Negotiation Counsel

In appropriate cases, Mr. McCauley also represents clients in the role of negotiator. A full description of the nature of that practice is set forth in the page to this website entitled "Article -- Settlement Counsel."

Specialty Experience

Mr. McCauley brings to mediation and arbitration the benefit of more than two decades of experience in complex Business, Employment and Real Estate litigation. His Business litigation has included securities fraud class actions, corporate and partnership dissolutions, business valuation, intellectual property, agriculture, entertainment, unfair competition, covenants not to compete, theft of trade secret, environmental, insurance coverage, healthcare, breach of contract and business tort actions. His Employment litigation has included wrongful termination, sex, race and age discrimination and sexual harassment actions, as well as employee wage & hour class actions. His Real Estate litigation has included deed of trust, judicial foreclosure, commercial unlawful detainer, breaches of real property sales agreement, brokerage commission and real property valuation actions. A more detailed description of Mr. McCauley's substantial case experience is set forth in the page to this website entitled "Substantive Experience."

ADR Teaching Experience

Mr. McCauley teaches an alternative dispute resolution course as an adjunct professor at the nationally renowned Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, California. In the past, he has taught ADR courses at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Affiliations

Mr. McCauley is a Fellow with the International Academy of Mediators, and a member of the California Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. He is licensed to practice law at all levels, including before the United State Supreme Court. He is also an AV rated attorney listed in the trial and business sections of the Martindale-Hubbell Register of Preeminent Attorneys