Richard M. Williams

Redwood City

Business, Class Action, Employment, Insurance, Malpractice, PI, Professional Negligence

Richard M. Williams' mediation practice follows a 50-year career as a litigator, handling matters for plaintiffs and defendants in the private and public sectors. As a mediator for over two decades, Richard has been involved in more than one thousand cases throughout California as an acting judge pro tem, special master, arbitrator or mediator. His cases have involved complex issues, including employment; catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death; insurance coverage and bad faith; business torts; product and premises liability; clergy and elder abuse; directors & officers liability; medical and legal malpractice; real estate; school district liability and technology disputes.

Richard sits on mediation court panels in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties, and has mediated cases for the First, Second and Sixth District Courts of Appeal. He has extensive training from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, as well as through the Sixth District Court of Appeal.

During his 40-year tenure as a senior partner at Gray, Duffy, Eisenbaum & Lee, LLP and Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley, Richard developed expertise in class action litigation and was appointed lead defense counsel in the first of a wave of class actions against the funeral industry in the 1990s. (In Re Fremont Cremation Cases) He also served as lead defense trial counsel in the only cremation class action tried in San Francisco Superior Court. (Hansell v. Pleasant Hill Cemetery) He continues to resolve disputes for business entities in the cemetery and funeral industry. Richard is the president of the board of directors of a well-known East Bay mortuary and serves as Vice President of the board of trustees of a historic East Bay cemetery and crematory.

Richard is Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated, the highest rating given to attorneys recognized for legal expertise, communication skills and ethical standards.