Hon. John A. Flaherty, Ret. Mediator Judicial Arbitration & Mediation Services Hon. John A. Flaherty (RET.) has been mediating employment and other cases at JAMS since his retirement from the Santa Clara County Superior Court in March 1998. He was appointed to the bench in March of 1977, and held just about every leadership position on the Superior Court, serving as Presiding Judge of the Court in 1986 and as Supervisor of the Civil Division of the Court in 1997. In 1984, he sat as judge on the First District of the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco. Prior to being appointed to the Superior Court bench, Judge Flaherty was a founding partner in the law firm of Berliner, Cohen & Flaherty, now Berliner Cohen. During his 21 years on the Santa Clara County Superior Court, Judge Flaherty handled a wide variety of complex civil cases during more than two decades. Judge Flaherty’s special areas of expertise include employment discrimination and harassment, intellectual property, business, real estate and corporate disputes, toxic tort, construction defect, product liability and personal injury. Judge Flaherty was honored as “Trial Judge of the Year” in Santa Clara County in 1987. He began his career-long interest in arbitration and mediation when he served as Chair of the Judicial Council Committee on arbitration in the early 1980’s. He also served as Chair of the Trial Court Coordination Advisory Committee to the Judicial Council from 1993 until his retirement in 1998. He is a member of the California Judges Association, Santa Clara County Bar Association and a former board member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. Judge Flaherty has lectured at the University of Santa Clara on mediation, arbitration and civil procedure, and for the CEB on real estate and business litigation issues. He has also lectured to California Judges at meetings of the California Judges Association and CJER on a wide range of civil litigation topics.