ADR BACKROUND

 

Richard Rybicki first encountered Alternative Dispute Resolution as a student at Cornell Law School, where it was taught by law faculty and Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School (ILR).  After returning to California, he enrolled in one of the state's first bar-sponsored mediator certification programs, completing the Los Angeles Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Services training in 1993.

 

In the 1990s, he was active in both the Beverly Hills Bar Association Mediation Subcommittee and the Southern California Mediation Association, including its early programs at Pepperdine University’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. He remains active in local organizations and has been a member of the American Bar Association’s Mediation Committee and the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s Publications Board.

 

Mr. Rybicki is a strong advocate of mediation.  He represented the California Institute of Technology in Garstang v. Superior Court, the first case recognizing a constitutional privacy right in mediation communications, and has participated in various amicus matters on ADR issues as well.

 

He is also active in public and academic education, presenting mediation seminars with agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Mr. Rybicki has taught employment mediation and bargaining skills at places such as Sonoma State University's Wine Business Institute and Stanford Law School’s Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program.

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Mr. Rybicki believes that successful mediation requires both substance and process. He relies on substantive employment law experience to help parties assess their own positions and possible outcomes, while incorporating traditional mediation process to break impasse and achieve solutions.

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PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

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Mr. Rybicki was a shareholder with the nation's largest labor and employment law firm prior to opening his own practice in 2002. As a management advocate, he advises on all areas of labor and employment law, representing employers, employer associations and employee benefit plans in courts and administrative proceedings throughout the United States. He also practices under state and federal labor relations laws including collective bargaining, arbitration, and matters before various labor relations boards.

 

As an employee advocate, Mr. Rybicki has handled matters ranging from individual Labor Commissioner claims to class and collective actions involving thousands of workers. His average individual and class-action recoveries top six and seven figures, respectively.  Significantly, he was lead counsel in the first two claims brought under California's Private Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act ("PAGA").

 

Mr. Rybicki attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Cambridge. He graduated from Cornell Law School, with a Concentration in Advocacy, and is admitted to practice in California, various federal District Courts and Courts of Appeal, and the United States Supreme Court.