Case Manager: Elvira Camacho
Since retiring from the Superior Court in 2005, Judge O’Brien has served as a neutral mediator in more than 600 cases, and has presided over 50 arbitrations and private trials and 20 discovery references.
Prior to his legal career, Judge O’Brien served as congressional press secretary to the late Charles E. Wiggins (later appointed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals). During law school, he was employed as the assistant manager of government relations for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. His principal assignment included writing scores of Chamber Board reports related to pending state and federal legislation, plus prominent ballot measures affecting business. After Board approval, these reports were distributed as pertinent to general media, some or all members of the legislature, and/or the California congressional delegation.
Judge O’Brien’s numerous articles have been published in (alphabetically) the CEB Civil Litigation Reporter, Gavel to Gavel, Journal of the California Dental Association, Judicature, the Loyola Law Review, the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, National Review, The Bench, The Glendoran, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the San Pedro News-Pilot. Judge O’Brien served four years as editor of the CJA newsletter California Courts Commentary (now named The Bench), and five years as editor of the Los Angeles Superior Court judicial newsletter Gavel to Gavel.
Judge O’Brien has been a guest law school lecturer at Loyola Law School, Pepperdine University Law School and Whittier Law School. He has also served as a lecturer, moderator and/or panelist at continuing education programs of the California Judges Association, the California Center for Judicial Education and Research, the Los Angeles Superior Court, the Trial Practice Inn of Court of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the East Valley Bar Association, the law firm of Snell and Wilmer, the Southern California Mediation Association and the USC Law School Alumni Association.
Judge O’Brien is a member and chair of the Civic Center Advisory Committee of the City of Rancho Palos Verdes. The committee is tasked with advising the City Council on the development of a new City Hall complex. He has previously served as a member and vice chair of the City’s Finance Advisory Committee and as a member of the RDA Dissolution Oversight Board. He has also served an appointed three-year term on the ADR Committee of the California State Bar Association, and served for five years on the ADR Committee of the California Judges Association (CJA). He was CJA president 2002-03 and continues to serve the organization on various committees and as a conference speaker and panelist.
Judge O’Brien is a member and past president of the Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula and a past president of the Rotary Club of West Covina. In 2016-17 Judge O’Brien served as District Governor of Rotary District 5280 (Greater Los Angeles). He is also a member of the Paul Harris Society and is a Major Donor to The Rotary Foundation.
“Judge O’Brien not only settled the dispute, but he also helped defuse a fair bit of contentiousness that built up during the case between the attorneys. Judge O’Brien’s effectiveness also really helped to push aside any lingering combativeness between us. And that just really impressed me. He is a mediator who does many things well. Across the board – in terms of efficiency, in terms of building bridges, in terms of getting people to move – he’s kind of just good at everything. There’s nothing he does badly. He does everything extremely well. He’s just fast, efficient and fair.”
“Judge O’Brien is especially good with cases involving challenging personalities. I like to use Judge O’Brien when I know either my client or opposing counsel is going to be extraordinarily difficult because he’s got an unusual degree of patience and thoughtfulness. If you’re having difficulty with client control, and you have a very emotionally raw client, and you don’t think they’re going to present well with a typical mediator, he is someone who is very understanding. People who are very upset with the process or the system and think what’s going on is really unfair – Judge O’Brien has a really good way of explaining how the rules work to people. And he corrals them without them noticing they’re being corralled.”
“Judge O’Brien is extremely well prepared and tenacious. He’s clearly been through virtually every permutation of how a case can unfold, and he provides extremely helpful and thoughtful guidance to the parties in understanding their positions. He has the ability to be both persuasive, in terms of his legal arguments and his practical arguments, and also tough and tenacious when that’s what the situation requires.”
