Fred D. Butler is a arbitrator and mediator of all forms of commercial disputes, including personal injury , insurance and employment matters such as labor disputes, termination, race, sex, disability discrimination and family medical leave issues; civil rights disputes & culturally sensitive matters; neutral fact finding & investigations; residential real estate disputes, including homeowners associations, landlord-tenant matters, construction and development issues. He is a licensed Attorney with over sixteen year’s experience representing parties before civil and administrative courts.
Prior to becoming an attorney, Mr. Butler served as Executive Director of a government agency in the Northeastern part of the country. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Rutgers’ University in New Jersey in 1974 and a Masters in Public Administration from New York University in 1977. He graduated Hastings College of the law in 1986, where he serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law in the Colleges Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. In addition he has studied at the National Judicial College, He has also lectured at several law schools, trained internal mediators for several large organizations and written several articles on mediation techniques and ADR policy matters.
He has for the past eight years, concentrated his practice on being a neutral. Since that time he has served as a neutral in over 700 disputes in a variety of matters. Mr. Butler has served as a Arbitrator & Mediator for a number of organizations and courts including the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; California State Mediation & Conciliation Service; San Francisco Civil Service Commission; National Mediation Service; American Arbitration Association, EEOC, Federal District Courts, California Appellate Courts, Kaiser Permanente; NASDR; U.S. Postal Service/American Postal Workers Union; San Francisco, San Mateo & Solano County Superior Courts and others.
Mr. Butler also serves as volunteer for a number of organizations. He is a past Co-Chair of the Bar Association of SF Arbitration Committee; Past President of the Board of Trustees of the Mediation Society; Past President of Community Boards of SF, the City’s Conflict Resolution Program. A pro-bono Hearing Officer and Mediator for the San Francisco Office of Citizen Complaints and a Mediator for the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center in San Mateo, CA. He is a past President of the Northern California Mediation Association (NCMA), a former appointed member of the California State Bar ADR Committee and Northern California ACR. He is also Past President of the Hastings College of the Law Alumni Association.
