John "Jay" Welsh is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the JAMS Foundation. He is the General Counsel of JAMS and has played a prominent role in the growth of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) since 1991. As General Counsel of JAMS, he oversees all legal matters, panel quality, risk management, and ethics. In addition to his duties as General Counsel, Welsh was a founder of the JAMS Foundation and guides both the Foundation and the JAMS Institute, which provides JAMS panel of neutrals with training on all ADR topics. Currently, Welsh has been leading the JAMS initiative in international mediation and arbitration.
A frequent lecturer and speaker, he conducts numerous training programs in negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and related topics throughout the world. He has assisted numerous businesses and government agencies in the formation and implementation of formalized ADR programs and has written extensively on reducing legal costs through the use of ADR. In 2010, Jay received a "Corporate Counsel of the Year Award" from the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Prior to joining JAMS, Welsh practiced law in San Francisco. He served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at both USC and USF Law Schools. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law.
