The United States District Court for the Northern District of California welcomes Jill Kopeikin as Alternative Dispute resolution (ADR) Program Director for the district.
Located in the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco, the director is a high-profile position responsible for the policy development, design, implementation, administration, oversight and evaluation of the court’s ADR program, including mediation, early neutral evaluation and the ADR Multi-Option Program.
Kopeikin will work closely with the court’s judges, their staff, and the clerk’s office to ensure integration of ADR in the judges’ case management. Other duties include serving as a visible and accessible information source for judges, neutrals, litigants, attorneys, client groups, bar associations, judges and staff from state and other federal courts, academics, law school classes, researchers and foreign judges and court administrators.
“Jill brings decades of experience as a lawyer and mediator, in private practice, as a member of the mediation and early neutral evaluation panels of the Northern District of California’s ADR program, and as a settlement pro tem with the Santa Clara County Superior Court. We welcome her expertise and insight,” said U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim, the district’s ADR liaison judge.
Kopeikin comes to the position with many years of experience in administering legal programs; most recently she developed a mediation practice, while she also served as a co-chair of the city of Mountain View’s Mediation Program and as an adjunct professor teaching mediation theory and practice at Santa Clara University Law School. Prior to that, from 2010 to 2017 she was a partner with GCA Partners LLC where she handled intellectual property and general business litigation in state and federal courts, from inception through conclusion.
From 2003 to 2010 she was with Dechert LLP, as a partner starting in 2005, where she handled intellectual property and commercial matters and counseling, as well as supporting investigations of the contours of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the JADE Act (Myanmar precious stones importation ban) and various pharmaceutical industry issues. In addition, she was responsible for supervising and training summer associates, training junior associates, and creating and delivering MCLE content. She was counsel for Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP from 1999 to 2003; an associate with Graham & James LLP from 1995 to 1999; and an associate with Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft from 1992 to 1995.
Kopeikin earned her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, in 1992 and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington in 1989.