Aug 11, 2025
Hon. Jo-Lynne Lee (Ret.) Joins ADR Services, Inc.
ADR Services, Inc. is proud to welcome Hon. Jo-Lynne Lee (Ret.) to our panel of distinguished neutrals.
Judge Lee brings more than four decades of legal experience to her role as a neutral, including over 20 years on the bench and two decades as a civil litigator and court-appointed Special Master. Appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court in 2002, she made history as the first Asian-American female judge appointed to that court and served with distinction for more than two decades.
Judge Lee now focuses her practice on mediation, arbitration, and discovery reference in complex civil matters, including personal injury, wage and hour, environmental, mass torts, business torts, construction, landlord-tenant, and commercial contract disputes.
While on the bench, Judge Lee served in the court’s settlement department, where she mediated approximately five to ten cases per week, helping parties resolve disputes involving catastrophic injury, wrongful death, workplace disputes, landlord-tenant conflicts, partnership breakups, and a wide range of business and commercial issues. She is especially adept at identifying and addressing the underlying emotional, strategic, and financial drivers of impasse and brings a steady, pragmatic mindset to negotiation.
For several years, Judge Lee presided over Alameda County’s asbestos litigation docket involving mass tort and toxic exposure claims, often touching on novel scientific and medical evidence issues, including genetic risk factors. She conducted one of the first fully remote civil jury trials during the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating her adaptability and leadership in the evolving litigation landscape. Judge Lee continues to be sought after for her subject-matter expertise in construction defect and delay, mass torts, CEQA and land use, and environmental contamination. She has been recognized for her fluency in technical material and her ability to distill complex concepts for attorneys and litigants alike.
Before her judicial appointment, Judge Lee spent 20 years in private practice as a civil trial lawyer, handling matters involving personal injury, insurance defense, construction, and complex commercial litigation. She also served as a Special Master and Discovery Referee in coordinated actions, often involving procedurally intensive, multi-party disputes. Earlier in her career, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of California and as an Assistant District Attorney in Bronx County, New York, where she tried serious felony cases to verdict.
In 2024, Judge Lee was named Trial Judge of the Year by the San Francisco Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and by the Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers’ Association (ACCTLA).
She earned her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and her B.A. in Political Science, magna cum laude, from Brooklyn College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.