Greg David Derin

Blending more than 35 years of experience in complex litigation, hundreds of hours of training in the “arts” of mediation and arbitration from premier national and international dispute resolution programs, and fourteen years as an acclaimed ADR professional, Greg Derin provides flexible mediation and arbitration processes to help disputants resolve even their most intractable problems. Greg’s unique background has earned him membership in elite professional organizations and recognition as a Power Mediator by The Hollywood Reporter and as an SuperLawyer™ in the fields of ADR, Intellectual Property Litigation and Entertainment and Sports.

During his career as a mediator, Greg has successfully assisted parties in resolving hundreds of complex matters. He is often called upon to resolve disputes after previous attempts at settlement have proven unavailing. Parties consistently attribute their successful resolutions to Greg’s persistence, attentive and open facilitation of a process designed to encourage creative solutions, and his broad substantive knowledge and experience. Greg has successfully helped parties resolve matters in a broad range of fields including contract, fraud, entertainment, intellectual property, real estate, employment, corporate and partnership, legal malpractice, class actions, and unfair business practices.

Greg is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, from which he received an A.B. degree with Highest Honors in 1976. Greg received a J.D. degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1979, where he was on the editorial board of the California Law Review and was a Charles Mills Gayley Fellow.

From 2004-2012, Greg assisted Professor Frank Sander and Washington, D.C. mediators Linda Singer and Michael Lewis in teaching the prestigious "Mediation Workshop" at the Harvard Negotiation Institute. Greg is a Past Chair of the California State Bar's Standing Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution, a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a member of the CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, the California and National Academies of Distinguished Neutrals, the American Arbitration Association Roster of Neutrals, the Arbitration Panel of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), and the Mediation and Arbitration Panels of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Greg has received mediation and arbitration training through highly respected programs including the Harvard Law School "Mediation Workshop," Pepperdine University School of Law's Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Ken Cloke's Center for Dispute Resolution, The Center for Dispute Settlement in Washington, D.C., Dispute Resolution Services, Inc. of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the International Academy of Mediators, the Section of Dispute Resolution of the American Bar Association, the American Arbitration Association, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Independent Film and Television Alliance.

In 1979, Greg joined the law firm of Dern, Mason, Swerdlow and Floum, where he practiced for ten years, becoming the Managing Partner of the firm's litigation department. Upon the dissolution of Dern, Mason in 1989, he became a founding member of Del, Rubel, Shaw, Mason & Derin, where he remained until opening his own office in 1997.

Greg is experienced in all phases of litigation, having handled matters before federal and/or state trial or appellate courts in California, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wyoming, and before the American Arbitration Association, California Labor Commissioner, Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Major League Baseball Players' Association, California Regional Water Quality Control Board, California State Water Resources Control Board, and the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Greg has litigated matters in diverse substantive areas, concentrating on entertainment and intellectual property, breach of contract, real estate, labor and employment, corporate and partnership, product liability and general business disputes. He serves as principal outside litigation counsel to a major talent agency, was lead local counsel in Southern California to a Fortune 500 company in connection with a series of product liability matters involving a medical device, and has tried cases as varied as a class action concerning a real estate development, a multi-million dollar construction defect matter, and talent agency disputes.