About me
Richard is the Shriver Settlement Master for Santa Barbara Superior Court and developed the Court’s Shriver Mandatory Settlement Conference Program. He hears all Shriver Mandatory Settlement Conferences in matters relating to housing and has significant experience working with Self-Represented Litigants. As a litigator for more than two and a half decades, Richard also has true experience working on both sides of the litigation bar. His diverse and unique background in science, litigation and the non-profit social justice arena has served him well in over 2,400 mandatory settlement conferences. While the basis of his early legal work has been significant civil litigation in medical malpractice (both plaintiff and defense), toxic torts, and general PI, contract and employment law, he also has far-reaching experience working with the rural poor in issues ranging from farmworker health and pesticides, unlawful detainers, habitability, farmworker wage and hour, housing, domestic violence and elder abuse.
Richard holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Loyola Marymount University where he was the recipient of the Alan R. Seydoux Memorial Award in field and marine biology and a teaching assistant medical parasitology, biochemistry, chemistry, physiology and marine ecology of Baja California. He is a 1991 Loyola Law School graduate and that year's recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award in Advanced Trial Advocacy. At Loyola, he was a member of the Moot Court Honors program and a founding member of the Environmental Law Society.
Since 1991, he has been licensed as an attorney by the California Supreme Court. He is also licensed by the United States District Court for the Central District of California, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California and the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He was also selected as a member of the Los Angeles Trial Lawyer Association and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He attended and received a Certificate from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University Mediating the Litigated Case in Washington, DC. He has served as Judge Pro Tem for Santa Barbara Superior Court and was selected as a Master with The Rodney S. Melville American Inn of Court, Santa Barbara County. He currently sits as a committee member of Santa Barbara Superior Court's Alternate Dispute Resolution Program Committee where he helps in reviewing mediator applications to the court's panels of Private Mediation, CADRe Limited Mediation, Neutral Evaluation and CMADRESS.