After over 30 years in practice, RICHARD J. COLLIER maintains a busy trial, arbitration and mediation practice with Cooper, White & Cooper LLP in San Francisco. His trial practice focuses on trusts and estates disputes. Although increasingly in demand for mediations and arbitrations in that area of law, over the past 20 years as a neutral Mr. Collier has handled mediations and arbitrations in a wide range of subject matters: partnership and close corporation disputes, intellectual property disputes, insurance coverage disputes, contract and business tort disputes, legal malpractice disputes – several hundred disputes in total.
Mr. Collier serves on the arbitration and mediation panels of the American Arbitration Association and as an instructor in the Association's training programs. He serves on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ADR Program panels; he has served frequently as an instructor in the Program's mediation and early neutral evaluation training programs. Mr. Collier has written, trained, and taught extensively in the Bay Area, most recently on preparing for mediation for the Mediation Society, mediating inheritance disputes for the Bar Association of San Francisco, and advocacy in mediation and arbitration for the California Continuing Education of the Bar.
Mr. Collier is a Past President of the Mediation Society, and is President-Elect of the California Dispute Resolution Council.
Professional Experience:
February 2008: Cooper, White & Cooper, LLP
Litigation and ADR practice
1993 – 2008: Titchell, Maltzman, Mark & Ohleyer, P.C.
Litigation and ADR practice; Managing Director
1979 - 1993: Farella, Braun & Martel
Litigation Partner 1986-1993
1969 - 1976: University of California, Berkeley
Assistant Professor, Department of English
Distinguished Teaching Award 1975
Education: J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, U.C. Berkeley, 1979
Ph.D., Washington University, St. Louis, 1969
M.A. First Class Honours, Edinburgh University, 1965