Rebecca Westerfield

Hon. Rebecca Westerfield (Ret.) has settled and arbitrated thousands of domestic cases and cross-border disputes throughout the United States. A full-time JAMS panelist since 1992, Judge Westerfield is widely perceived as a tenacious mediator. She is included regularly on the "National Mediators" List, Chambers USA and she was noted as being at the "cutting edge of the field" by peers. Her extensive experience includes complex, multi-party, multi-issue cases with underlying insurance coverage disputes. She is particularly adept at dealing with matters that involve cross-cultural dynamics and high emotional content, such as business dissolutions, catastrophic personal injury litigation and family estate matters. Parties have included Fortune 500 companies and other publicly owned corporations, Silicon Valley entities and multinational corporations.

In arbitrations, Judge Westerfield is known for managing the process efficiently and fairly. Her managerial arbitration style provides parties with an opportunity to be fully heard while moving the process to conclusion.

She has presented at numerous international programs on mediation in Asia, Europe and Latin America, taught as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and lectured at Stanford University Law School. She is particularly interested in the use of mediation skills and techniques in the making of public policy and in cross-cultural communication.