Case Manager: Christie Woo
Hon. Michelle R. Rosenblatt (Ret.) mediates, arbitrates and is available to act in the capacity of a private judge and discovery referee on a wide range of civil cases. As a mediator, Judge Rosenblatt helps the parties settle their disputes through a combination of her thorough preparation, legal knowledge, extensive experience, intellect, calm approach, patience, persistence and low-key, empathetic personality. Since retiring from 23 years as a judge and joining ADR Services, Inc. in 2016, Judge Rosenblatt has established herself as a go-to neutral who has the work ethic, personality, tenacity and ability to resolve matters that are both factually nuanced and legally complex.
Judge Rosenblatt facilitated numerous settlements and presided over numerous jury and bench trials during her tenure on the bench. During her years presiding over an unlimited civil court in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, Judge Rosenblatt handled a variety of civil case types, including sexual harassment and sexual assault; racial and disability discrimination; gender orientation harassment; wrongful termination; wage and hour violations including misclassification cases; business disputes, both breach of contract and business torts, including theft of trade secrets litigation; real estate actions; complex personal injury/product liability and wrongful death, including helicopter, bus and truck accidents; legal, medical, and architect malpractice; construction defect; habitability cases; clergy sexual molestation cases; civil rights/police misconduct; and ADA cases. While presiding over an unlimited jurisdiction civil court in the Burbank Courthouse, Judge Rosenblatt also oversaw a variety of personal injury, legal and medical malpractice cases.
Judge Rosenblatt began her career in 1977 as an associate in small firms handling criminal appeals, juvenile delinquency adjudications, and civil litigation. She joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 1980 where she handled over 200 jury trials, including as a designated sexual assault prosecutor, a trial attorney in the Career Criminal Division and a trial attorney in the Organized Crime and Anti-Terrorist Division.
In addition to her courtroom duties as a judge, Hon. Michelle R. Rosenblatt participated in numerous Superior Court, California Judicial Research and Education, and California Judges Association committees. Notably, during her judicial career she was elected to the Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Committee for three separate two-year terms; served as the Vice-Chair of the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Judicial Outreach Committee; served on several California Judicial Research and Education committees; co-chaired the Los Angeles Superior Court Civil Education at Lunch program; taught classes to judges both statewide and for the Los Angeles Superior Court Judges; served on the board and as Vice-President of the California Judges Association; served for five years as Editor-in-Chief of the California Judges Association magazine, The Bench; and served for two terms as President of the California Judges Foundation.
“If you have a tough case with bad facts, you’re not going to whiz it by her. She will very, very quickly grasp the important things about the case. So when I mediate with her, I talk to my clients about how she’s going to home in on the thing you are least comfortable with and spend a lot of time talking about that. She’s not one of those mediators who’s just going to shine you on and say, ‘You have a great case; you’re going to win.’ She calls it the way she sees it. So you have to make sure your client’s prepared to hear from a very experienced judge.”
“Judge Rosenblatt is very good at distilling the case down to what’s important. I think she has a really good sense for looking at a case and saying, ‘OK, this is what matters, this is where it could very likely land.’ That’s the value judges bring to mediation, and I think she’s one of the best.”
“She is very good at distilling the case down to what is important. I think she has a really good sense for looking at a case and saying, ‘OK, this is what matters , this is where it could very likely land.’ That’s the value judges bring to mediation, and I think she’s one of the best.”
“Judge Rosenblatt is knowledgeable and pleasant. There are some mediators that make your clients somewhat uneasy and sometimes they even make me uneasy. Some mediators are just very aggressive. What really strikes me the most about Judge Rosenblatt is she’s able to do it without being condescending, without putting the client down, without making the client feel uncomfortable. She just calmly explains everything – the strengths and weaknesses as the other side presents it – and she gives her own five cents, obviously, as well. And it just works. She gets cases settled.”
“Judge Rosenblatt was well-prepared and methodical. Throughout the proceedings, she was very fair. She was very careful to give each party an opportunity to be heard on everything. She was very careful to understand our positions and also to make sure we understood what was required of us. She was very, very thorough in issuing her final award. It was very, very careful and thorough and detailed all the evidence, all the witnesses, all the issues and really carefully explained the reasoning and rationale for her decision. So I really appreciated that.”
“Judge Rosenblatt is one of ADR’s best neutrals. Always a pleasure to work with her!”
“Judge Rosenblatt was very well prepared. I appreciated the fact that she was willing to have a call with me before the mediation. That was important to our client. I also appreciated the fact that she was a straight shooter and didn’t read a “doom and gloom” manifesto to our sophisticated client in trying to drive the matter to resolution. (The latter seems to occur in 80% of mediations, and it doesn’t fly well with our sophisticated clients.) Judge Rosenblatt was able to both respect our client’s intellect/experience and get more money to reach a settlement. I’d definitely want to use her again. I also appreciate the late hour she was willing to endure. Five stars.”
“Judge Rosenblatt went out of her way to achieve a successful conclusion to a difficult matter. Her efforts are very much appreciated.”
“Judge Rosenblatt was amazing and went above and beyond to mediate a resolution. Excellent.”
“Judge Rosenblatt was incredibly thoughtful, fair, and effective. It was a true pleasure to work with her.”
“Judge Rosenblatt always goes above and beyond. We love using her services.”
“It was a pleasure working with Judge Rosenblatt. I knew we found the right mediator during our first telephonic meeting, and all of her work confirmed this. We could not have asked for a better neutral, and I already have sent her information to five different attorneys with cases in Los Angeles!”