Practice Area:Business, Commercial, Contract, Employment, Insurance
For more than 40 years, Randall Newsome has built a reputation for facilitating the resolution of large and complex bankruptcy and commercial disputes, first as a bankruptcy judge for 28 years, and then as a neutral at JAMS. Notable cases include the Pacific Gas and Electric bankruptcy in 2003 and the PG&E bankruptcy in 2019, in both of which he served as the court-appointed mediator.
Randall has been a neutral in hundreds of other matters involving entities of every description, including law firms, Ponzi schemes, hospitals, professional athletes, entertainment companies, oil companies, retail, computing, software and a host of other enterprises. He has experience dealing with a wide range of subject areas, including:
Insurance coverage
Employment
Breach of contract
Fraudulent transfers
Business disputes
Mergers and acquisitions
Contract disputes
Additionally, Randall has served as an expert witness, most notably in the Madoff bankruptcy and SIPC proceedings, as well as in a multi-billion dollar insurance dispute arising out of a mass tort bankruptcy.
Randall’s approach to mediation tends towards the evaluative, but will use whatever approach best suits the parties and the case. He will give an unvarnished appraisal of the merits of each side’s position. Clients and counsel can be assured that his opinion is based on thorough preparation (including reading the briefs, applicable cases and publicly available information), not on posturing or bluffing.
As for arbitrations, he will ensure that the proceeding are efficient and cost-effective in keeping with the parties’ wants and needs, particularly in smaller matters that don’t justify the cost and delay that are too often synonymous with the process. He is also available to serve in other capacities, such as a court-appointed examiner and future claimants representative in mass tort bankruptcies.
In January of 2011 he joined JAMS, the largest alternative dispute resolution firm in the country. He launched Randall Newsome ADR and Consulting LLC in January of 2022.
Education
Boston University, Bachelor of Arts (BA), summa cum laude
University of Cincinnati College of Law, Doctor of Law (JD)