Meet John Derrick

John Derrick has a background in law and business. A dual national who came to the US from the UK over 30 years ago, he is naturally skilled as a mediator at helping people from all sorts of backgrounds resolve a wide variety of disputes that previously proved intractable. As an arbitrator, he fairly weighs the evidence and rigorously applies the law.

John has degrees from two of the world’s top-five universities. He received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He received his undergraduate degree in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford in Britain, graduating with First Class Honours, the highest class of undergraduate degree awarded by that university.

John’s alternative dispute resolution practice draws in part on his experience over 20 years as an accomplished appellate lawyer. His journey into mediation began in the appellate system in 2008 when he went on the Court of Appeal mediation panel in Los Angeles, on which he continues to serve. 

Today, John is a full-time mediator and arbitrator. He is on the panel of neutrals of Alternative Resolution Centers (ARC), one of California’s longest-established ADR providers. And he is on the Commercial and Consumer national rosters of the American Arbitration Association.

John is also on the mediation panel of the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. And he is a Settlement Master for the Santa Barbara Superior Court and a member of that court’s private mediation panel. 

In 2018, John completed the nationally top-rated, intensive mediation training program offered by Pepperdine’s Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution (“Mediating the Litigated Case”). He is currently the co-Chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Santa Barbara County Bar Association. In that role, he is actively involved in producing continuing education programs for other mediators.

John is certified as a Specialist in Appellate Law by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, and — while in appellate practice — was the lead lawyer in over 200 appeals, many resulting in published opinions. Once, he obtained five reversals in quick succession in a 12-month period. 

With alternative dispute resolution as his focus, John no longer takes cases as an appellate lawyer (although he still consults in some). But while in active appellate practice, he took on a leadership role in his field. He was the 2014-2015 Chair of the California State Bar’s Standing Committee on Appellate Courts, and from 2011-2013, served as Editor-in-Chief of California Litigation, then the journal of the Litigation Section of the State Bar. He later served on the Executive Committee of the Litigation Section of the California Lawyers Association. He also taught as a practitioner-advisor in the Berkeley Law Appellate Advocacy program.

​Before entering the legal profession, John co-founded, operated, and eventually sold a specialized information publishing business in the UK and then in the US. During his business years, he took a year out to serve as Special Adviser to the Energy Secretary in the UK Cabinet.