licensing arrangements, all of which I have a lot of experience with,” Briggs says. Armed with extensive business experience and legal expertise, Briggs began serving as an arbitrator in 1994. What became immediately clear to attorneys working with Briggs was that they didn’t need to spend much time educating him on the specifics of complex business deals; he had drafted them, negotiated them and lived by them for more than two decades. Attorneys were grateful not to have to waste time getting him up to speed on the legalities of business transactions. As such, the vast majority of Briggs’ arbitration cases came to him initially by way of the American Arbitration Association, where he served as a neutral in Commercial and Domain Name Dispute panels. Indeed, drafting and negotiating joint venture and mergers and acquisition agreements domestically and internationally in sizes ranging from $150K - $2 Billion, was all in a days’ work for Briggs for many years. As senior international counsel for a Fortune 50 company, Briggs handled legal matters for the company in more than 24 countries from his base in London, where he is also on the Roll of Solicitors, before returning to San Diego in 2000.
Present: Celebrating 20 Years of Arbitration By 2001, Briggs had “left corporate life to vigorously pursue practice as an alternative dispute resolution neutral, while maintaining a legal practice in order to stay current in corporate and securities law,” he says. As part of that commitment to staying current not only with laws, but with all things related to alternative dispute resolution, Briggs’ extensive training includes hundreds of hours dedicated to ongoing education in the field. He has also presented in front of various State Bar Associations, and became a neutral for panels including FINRA, National Futures Association, National Conflict Resolution Center, Kaiser Permanente and Superior Court Panel of Mediators. These days, after 20 years of experience as an arbitrator and mediator, Briggs is just as passionate about arbitration as he was when he was first introduced to the field in college. “I am committed to making arbitration a preferred method of dispute resolution. When the parties cannot reach a settlement, arbitration is a speedy and equitable method of dispute resolution using the arbitrator’s subject matter expertise,” he says. But rest assured, even though he has worked with Fortune 50 international companies, his bet-the-company types of cases aren’t always high dollar ones. “The parties may have tried mediation, and I believe that mediation is an excellent means of resolving cases when both parties have the motivation to settle. But so many times people are locked in, emotionally. For example, they may be determined to receive $500,000. $500,000 is all they can see. When that is the case, it is often preferable to have someone like myself come in and render a decision,” Briggs says. Continuing he adds that his tenure in complex business
disputes enables him to stick to the laws and the circumstances surrounding a case. “Arbitrators are often criticized for ‘splitting the baby,’ but when the facts and the laws merit, I’m not afraid to give an all or nothing decision,” he says. Still Briggs is quick to point out that highly emotional cases are not always high value cases. “If you’re GM and millions of dollars on the line, and GM is owned by thousands of shareholders, there typically isn’t one single person who has a lot to lose. They will be able to move forward. However, if you’re an entrepreneur and 100% of your livelihood is contingent upon running a $300K/year business, and the business crashes, a merger falls apart or an acquisition goes terribly bad, there may be no pieces to pick up, that’s when you’ve bet the company,” he explains. These scenarios are cases in which Briggs excels, and they are the reason he is selected so often for these types of cases. “I’m a transactional attorney. I’m not a litigator. I don’t come from the side of advocacy, like a trial lawyer does. I come from the side of having worked with contracts for years. I understand the clauses involved in complex agreements. You wouldn’t come to me to resolve a dispute over a traffic accident, but dealing with buy/sell agreements, joint venture, licensing, complex financing and securities is definitely my forte. I have gathered that expertise together with my graying hair.”
Future: Collaborative Business Divorce Is On The Horizon As for the future of Briggs’ practice, the possibilities are limitless. Briggs is licensed to practice law in California, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, England and even Wales. “A professor of mine told me that even though I didn’t have to be admitted to the Bar in states where I was practicing as in-house counsel, I should go for it anyway. In fact, he said ‘think about all possible places you might want to retire, and get licensed there,’ so I did.” For now however, he’s committed to remaining in San Diego, and expanding his arbitration and mediation practice to include Collaborative Business Divorce. “There is movement toward a methodology referred to as collaborative divorce where alternative dispute resolution techniques are combined with subject matter expertise by one lawyer for all parties in order to reduce costs and friction. I am looking at ways that I can handle a collaborative business divorce, without each party needing to hire an attorney, which might reduce extensive, expensive negotiations. I’ve done one so far, and it was successful. It may not be right for everyone, but I am always looking for ways to expand my services so that parties can resolve disputes fairly, efficiently, and economically,” Briggs says. n Contact: Michael Briggs San Diego Neutrals, LLC www.sandiegoneutrals.com mbriggs@sandiegoneutrals.com (858) 232-8591 Attorney Journal | Volume 130, 2014
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