To gather insights on mediation techniques and approaches from professionals and attorneys on both sides of the negotiation table.
Rob Dobbins LLM, Esq.
Rob Dobbins is an accomplished Mediator and Arbitrator with over two decades of experience. Rob has mediated several thousand matters, the majority of which has been as a Judicate West Neutral. His practice as a neutral has evolved to focus on medical negligence and elder abuse matters, following his mentorship under Master Mediator/Arbitrator Jay Cordell Horton. Through this collaboration, they have co-mediated more than 100 cases in these specialized areas. Rob also brings extensive experience in major injury cases and a broad range of complex business/commercial, real estate, employment, and financial institution matters. He is known for his patience, tenacity, insight, and ability to establish a connection with all parties, which has been key to achieving favorable resolutions in even the most challenging cases.
Thomas Dillard, Esq.
Thomas Dillard is trial attorney for over 23 years, Tom has resolved hundreds of matters through arbitration, mediation, and trial, representing both plaintiffs and defendants. For the past 16 years, he has utilized his extensive litigation experience and mediation training from Pepperdine University’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution to pursue a full-time ADR practice, focusing on mediation and arbitration.Prior to joining JW, Mr. Dillard was a founding partner and full-time Mediator/Arbitrator with Resolve It, a conflict solution company. To date, Mr. Dillard has mediated in excess of 3,000 cases and arbitrated more than 500 litigated matters. His experience encompasses a wide range of civil litigation, with particular expertise in medical malpractice, elder abuse, product liability, construction accidents, insurance coverage, and all types of personal injury.
Kim Valentine, Esq.
Ms. Valentine is the principal attorney at Valentine Law Group. She received her Juris Doctorate degree with honors, from Western State University in 1997. She is licensed to practice law in California and Arizona. Ms. Valentine has dedicated her career in the practice of law to advocating for the vulnerable, the injured and the infirm. Her focus is to ensure that individuals are not needlessly taken advantage of or exposed to unnecessary harm. Her clients ages span from newborn children to elderly as old as 104. She practices in the areas of elder abuse, medical malpractice, products liability, serious personal injury, and government tort claims litigation. Ms. Valentine serves on the Executive Board of the Orange County Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). She co chairs the Civics Education Committee for the National Board of ABOTA. She has received the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association’s Top Gun award as an exceptional Elder Abuse litigator multiple times and has been recognized as a California Trial Lawyers Associations “Street Fighter” Award finalist. She was also named a Super Lawyer each year since 2014. Super Lawyers Southern California Magazine named her as one of the top 50 Orange County lawyers and Top 50 Women lawyers in Southern California multiple times and did so again in 2021. The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) awarded her the Volunteer of the Year award for the Orange County chapter in 2019, and Ms. Valentine was selected by CAL ABOTA as Volunteer of the year in 2021. Ms. Valentine is the founder of Operation Helping Hands, a non-profit providing community college scholarships/stipends to housing insecure students as well as providing backpacks full of necessity items to the homeless population. Ms. Valentine received the 2019 Trial Lawyers Care award from the American Association for Justice for her work in the community with Operation Helping Hands. She is one of the founding members and serves on the Board of Directors for Stop Elder Abuses, a non-profit organization which educates the public on the issue of abuse. She also sat on the Advisory Committee to the Los Angeles Elder Abuse Forensic Center. She served on the Board of Governors for the Consumer Attorneys of California between 2009 and 2012 and was active in Consumer Attorneys of California Women’s Caucus. Ms. Valentine served on the Board of Directors for the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association from 2007 through 2011. She is also a member of CAALA, OCTLA, OCBA, ABOTA, the American Association for Justice, and the American Jurist Association. She guest speaks and lectures on various topics including elder abuse, medical malpractice, trial presentation and life skills.
Kathleen M. Walker, Esq.
Kathleen Walker is the Co-Managing Partner in the Los Angeles office of Lewis Brisbois and is a chair of the firm’s Healthcare, Medical Malpractice, and Long-Term Care Practices. Ms. Walker’s litigation practice is devoted to representing the interests of long term care facilities including SNF, RCFE, AL, ICF and CCRC providers as well as all types of care providers including but not limited to acute care hospitals, mental health, home health, hospice, adult day care, group homes and individual licensed health care providers including but not limited to physicians, nurses, and therapists. For over 30 years Ms. Walker has dedicated her practice to successfully helping those in the care industry defend their interests. She is the designated preferred counsel for several national assisted living operators as well as many California nursing home operators. Ms. Walker also specializes in providing risk management support to a broad array of clients. She regularly presents seminars on trends in elder abuse litigation and in-service training to management and staff of nursing home, assisted living operators and other care providers with the goal of risk reduction. In addition, she provides crisis management assistance to several large healthcare providers. Ms. Walker also has extensive experience in the area of healthcare regulatory litigation and compliance and has litigated these cases in both the Superior Court and administrative law proceedings. Ms. Walker is a recognized expert and leader in all aspects of nursing home and health care litigation. She has a passion for helping her clients defend their interests against negligence, abuse/neglect, contract and fraud based claims and has obtained successful results through law and motion, mediation, arbitration and trial. She is a champion for the care industry, devoted to improving the quality of care of her clients and through education and training providing her clients with additional tools and strategies for future risk reduction.
Registration includes the post-event networking reception with a selection of delicious appetizers, drinks, and complimentary on-site parking.
Please note: No refunds are given for cancellation or non-attendance. If you have registered for this event and are unable to attend, please contact SCAHRM at vp.org at least 24 hours prior to the event.
SCAHRM is approved by the California State Bar as an MCLE Multiple Activity Provider (MAP #18946) and a Continuing Education Provider by the California Board of Nursing (CEP #10552).
This activity qualifies for 1.0 MCLE credit hours and 1.0 BRN continuing education contact hours. This meeting is pending approval for a total of 1.0 contact hours of Continuing Education Credit toward fulfillment of the requirements of ASHRM designations of FASHRM (Fellow) and DFASHRM (Distinguished Fellow) and towards CPHRM renewal. This event is approved for 1.0 ASRHM CE contact hours.
