Biography

Professor Emeritus H. Jay Folberg has authored many articles and books on dispute resolution, mediation, negotiation, and family law. Folberg was the dean of the USF School of Law from 1989 to 1999. He has served as chairman of the Association of American Law Schools Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, president of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, chairman of the Oregon State Bar Family Law Section, and president of the Academy of Family Mediators. In 1998, Folberg was appointed by the chief justice of the California Supreme Court as chair of a state wide task force on alternative dispute resolution and in 2001 to chair the Judicial Council's Blue Ribbon Panel on arbitration ethics. He was honored in 2003 with the Judicial Council's Bernard Witkin Amicus Curiae Award "for his leadership in the field of alternative dispute resolution and his outstanding contributions to the California courts." Folberg now serves as a mediator and arbitrator with JAMS and is executive director of the JAMS Foundation.

Education
BA, San Francisco State University
JD, UC Berkeley
Experience
Visiting Professor, University of Washington School of Law
Professor, Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College
Founding Director, Oregon Legal Services
Executive Director, Legal Aid Services (Portland, Ore.)
Associate, Rives & Schwab (now Stoel Rives)
Expertise
Dispute Resolution
Mediation
Family Business
Family Law
Awards & Distinctions

Lawyer as Problem Solver Award, Institution recipient on behalf of the JAMS foundation, American Bar Association (Section of Dispute Resolution) (2017)

Invited guest of John R. Phillips, United States Ambassador to Italy (2016), ADR Center in Rome, Italy

Lifetime Achievement Award (2011) from the American College of Civil Trial Mediators

 

Law Review and Journal Articles
“The Shrinking Joint Session: Survey Results,” American Bar Association‘s Dispute Resolution Magazine (2016). (The article presents and analyzes the results of his survey of more than 300 full-time commercial mediators in the US and Canada on their use of joint sessions in mediation. He documents the diminishing use of joint sessions and distinguishes differences in commercial mediation practice between the Northwest, Southwest and Eastern regions of the Unites States.) Read more
Presentations
Presenter, “Challenges of Mandated Family Mediation,” International Conference: Tbilisi Mediation Days, Tbilisi, Georgia (November, 2016)
Presenter, “The Advantages and Pitfalls of Arbitration Regulation,” First Annual ADR Symposium, “ADR Ethics,” University of Southern California Gould School of Law, Los Angeles, CA (April, 2016)
Presenter, “The Shrinking Joint Session in Mediation: Survey Results and Implications for Teaching,” Northern California ADR Faculty Conference, Santa Clara, CA (February, 2016)
Media
"The Joint Opening Session in Mediation: Still Viable Tool, or Explosive Relic?", Connecticut Law Tribune, 11/08/2016
"Lawsuits: Unclogging Courts - A Civil Alternative", The Press Enterprise, 01/30/2015
Service
Hosted in Phenom Penh, Cambodia by Cambodian lawyers who studied at the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1994-96. These USF alums were the first generation of lawyers in post Khmer Rouge Cambodia and are now leaders of the Bar, courts, legal education and law reform NGOs. (2018)
Awards Committee, International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR) (2017)