An Arbitration Debate: ArbiGREAT? or ArbiHATE?

Honorable Sallie Kim
Magistrate Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California

Judge Kim brings a broad range of civil and criminal litigation experience to the bench, with a special emphasis on civil cases in federal court.

Judge Kim graduated from Princeton University in 1986 and from Stanford Law School in 1989. Upon graduation from law school, she served as law clerk to United States District Judge Spencer Williams of this Court. She then entered private civil litigation practice in Palo Alto. From 1995-99, Judge Kim served as Associate and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at Stanford Law School, after which she returned to private civil litigation practice and became a partner with the law firm of GCA Law Partners, LLP in 2002. She practiced at GCA Law Partners until she joined the Court in 2015.

Judge Kim’s professional activities outside of regular civil litigation practice have included service in the following capacities: Co-Director of the Trial Advocacy Program and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School beginning in 2014; the Interim Title IX Coordinator for Stanford University in 2013 and 2014; and Volunteer Deputy District Attorney for Santa Clara County for 14 weeks in 2010.

                                                                                 Miriam Kim
                                                         Partner, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP

Miriam Kim is a partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Her practice focuses on complex civil litigation and high-stakes investigations, with a particular emphasis on trade secret matters, marketing and false advertising claims, and technology disputes. Ms. Kim has a reputation for solving her clients’ most challenging problems as if they were her own.

Ms. Kim was named by the Daily Journal as a “Top Trade Secrets Lawyer” in 2020. Only 20 California attorneys who practice trade secret law were recognized with this honor. In 2019, Ms. Kim was selected by Corporate Counsel as a Women, Influence & Power in Law. She was also named one of the “Best Lawyers Under 40” by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) in 2014.

Ms. Kim speaks Korean and has successfully advocated for clients in a range of matters involving Korean companies. Ms. Kim’s pro bono practice is focused on the needs of immigrants and victims of sexual abuse.

Ms. Kim is a leader in the community and a frequent speaker on diversity issues. She is a past co-chair of the Northern District of California Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit, a member of the board of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) and an active member of Christ Church East Bay. Ms. Kim is also a past president of the Asian American Bar Association (AABA) and a former board member of BASF’s Justice & Diversity Center. While Ms. Kim was president of AABA, AABA was recognized as NAPABA’s 2017 Affiliate of the Year.

Jason Lichtman
Partner, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP

Jason L. Lichtman has extensive experience leading multidistrict and large class action litigation on behalf of consumer plaintiffs. With a practice focused on consumer protection, data privacy, and damages, Jason played a key role in the recent Anthem Data Breach Litigation, leading plaintiffs’ work with damages experts, including the development of highly technical, comprehensive experts reports, defending depositions of plaintiffs’ experts, and taking defendants’ experts’ depositions. This work contributed heavily to the ground-breaking settlement for plaintiffs of $115 million as well as significant injunctive relief targeting deficient Anthem’s cybersecurity practices.

Numerous courts have appointed Jason to leadership positions in large consumer protection cases, including the exploding Samsung Top-Loading Washing Machines case (Co-Lead Counsel); the Whirlpool Corp. Front-Loading Washer products liability litigation (Co-Lead Counsel); and the Dover v. British Airways airline overcharging case (Class Counsel).

Jason serves on the executive committee and board of directors for Public Justice Foundation and is Vice Chair of the Public Justice Class Action Committee. Public Justice is devoted to standing up for consumers against unscrupulous payday lenders, reckless polluters, dangerous food producers, and other bad corporate actors.

Barbara Reeves Esq., CEDS
Mediator and Arbitrator, JAMS

Barbara Reeves is a highly regarded and well-respected mediator and arbitrator with JAMS. Before becoming a full-time neutral 15 years ago, Barbara Reeves had an extensive and varied litigation practice, beginning with the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, then as a partner at national law firms. Ms. Reeves also served as Associate General Counsel and Vice President for Southern California Edison and Edison International with responsibility for Procurement/Supply Chain, Real Estate and Transportation.

Barbara Reeves is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the College of Commercial Arbitrators (Secretary-Treasurer 2020-2021), an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a certified mediator with the International Mediation Institute. She is also a certified e-discovery specialist. She received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.

  Questions?
Contact: Michele Silva, Event Planner
ABTL – Northern California Chapter
Email: abtl-ncal@comcast.net
Phone: 9256-596-1968
Website:  www.abtl.org