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Hon. Jo-Lynne Lee (Ret.)

Case Manager: Kathleen Emma

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Hon. Jo-Lynne Lee (Ret.) 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.

Known for her deliberate, calm, and focused style, Judge Lee is widely respected by both colleagues and litigators for her thorough preparation, balanced temperament, and commitment to equitable outcomes. She approaches dispute resolution with a practical, problem-solving focus, taking time to understand the legal and personal stakes of each matter. In decision-making assignments, she brings a trial judge’s discipline and fairness, evaluating the record with care and applying the law to reach reasoned, evidence-based outcomes.

A lifelong learner, Judge Lee took a judicial sabbatical in 2023 to conduct a comparative study of asbestos litigation practice in the U.S. and England and Wales as a Visiting Fellow at the Commercial Law Centre, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. She is writing an article on the use of genetic evidence in litigation in the U.S. and in England and Wales. In Fall 2025, she will serve as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom studying legacy litigation disposal transactions.

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.

Judge Lee is a member of the American Bar Association, Asian American Bar Association, Alameda County Bar Association, and California Judges Association. Her civic involvement includes past board service with the Rotary Club of Oakland, the YWCA of Oakland, and Redwood Day School. She was recognized by the YWCA’s Salute to Women program for her leadership and contributions to the legal profession and community. 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.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Business & Contracts
  • Construction
  • Employment
  • Mass Torts
  • Personal Injury
  • Product Defect
  • Property Disputes

EDUCATION

  • Columbia University School of Law, J.D. | 1974
  • Brooklyn College, CUNY, B.A., Political Science, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa | 1970

JUDICIAL EXPERIENCE

Judge, Superior Court of California, County of Alameda | 2002-2025

  • First Asian-American woman appointed to this court
  • Presided over criminal and civil cases; notable decisions include rulings on CEQA, Anti-SLAPP, and complex torts

LEGAL AND ADR EXPERIENCE

Special Master & Mediator, Griffiths & Castle, Pleasant Hill, CA | 1998-2002

  • Mediated and coordinated complex civil litigation and construction defect matters
  • Appointed as Discovery Referee and served as Judge Pro Tem in small claims court

Of Counsel, Gong, Mitchell, Combs & Lee, Oakland, CA | 1985-1997

  • Represented public and private entities in civil litigation, including jury trials involving environmental and construction claims

Associate Attorney, Robinson & Wood, San Jose, CA | 1981-1985

  • Insurance defense work; appeared regularly in court on law & motion, trial preparation

Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, N.D. Cal., San Francisco, CA | 1978-1980

  • Prosecuted federal criminal cases; jury trial experience in tax and bank robbery matters

Staff Attorney, National Center for State Courts, San Francisco, CA | 1977-1978

  • Conducted nationwide court studies on trial delay; co-authored landmark publications on litigation pace

Assistant District Attorney, Bronx County District Attorney’s Office, NY | 1974-1977

  • Assigned to Major Offense Bureau; jury trials involving felony rape, robbery, assault

PUBLICATIONS

  • Author, “Adjudicating Asbestos Claims in California and England: A Comparative Study Mass Claims,” July 2024
  • Author, “Pre-Trial Delay: A Review and Bibliography,” NCSC, 1978
  • Author, “Justice Delayed: The Pace of Litigation in Urban Trial Courts,” NCSC, 1978
  • Consultant, California Judges Benchbook, Judicial Council of California

BOARD SERVICE & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Rotary Club of Oakland, No. 3

  • Member, 1991–Present; Board of Trustees, 2000–2002; Education Support Chair, 1997-1998; Participated in Rotary’s international polio vaccination initiative in Ghana

YWCA of Oakland

  • Board of Directors, 1982–1991; 2000–2001; Strategic Planning Committee, 2000–2002

Redwood Day School, Oakland, CA

  • Board of Trustees, 1996–1998; Vice President, 1998

Alameda Point Restoration Advisory Board

  • Member, 1997–Present; Community Co-Chair, 1999
  • Worked on environmental clean-up of the former Alameda Naval Air Station, a Super-Fund site

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

  • Trial Judge of the Year, ABOTA – San Francisco Chapter, 2024
  • Trial Judge of the Year, Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers’ Association, 2024
  • YWCA Salute to Women Honoree, 1991

BAR ADMISSIONS & MEMBERSHIPS

  • California State Bar
  • Alameda County Bar Association
  • American Bar Association
  • Asian-American Bar Association
  • California Judges Association
  • National Association of Women Judges
  • Women Lawyers of Alameda County

Representative Cases

CONSUMER PROTECTIONS

  • Action brought by a former patient against her therapist seeking recovery of fees paid to the therapist and for injunctive relief. Plaintiff alleges that from 2006 to 2014, the defendant, a licensed therapist, told her that her homosexuality was a pathological disorder resulting from past sexual abuse and that plaintiff should and would be able to change her sexual orientation by participating in a form of conversion therapy he provided. It is also alleged that the defendant claimed his therapy could rewire her brain and allow her to recover lost memories of past sexual abuse. Plaintiff's complaint alleges that it is the consensus of current scientific opinion that lesbianism is not a pathological disorder and that "conversion therapy" is without scientific validity and is, in fact, harmful. The complaint stated four causes of action: (1) violation of the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) under Civil Code section 1770(a), (2) violation of the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) under Business and Professions Code section 1720, (3) Intentional Misrepresentation, and (4) Breach of Fiduciary Duty. Defendant demurred arguing that plaintiff's complaint is essentially a claim for breach of professional negligence and therefore barred by the statute of limitations under MICRA (Civil Code section 340.5). Defendant also argued that "conversion therapy" while controversial, is not illegal under Business & Professions Code section 865 and under the "safe harbor" defense, he is immune from liability.

DEFAMATION

  • Plaintiff, a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Sikh Temple brought an action for libel against the editor and publisher of a weekly national newspaper. The editor and publisher filed a special motion to strike on the basis that the action violated the anti-strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) statute.

EDUCATION

  • Petitioners sought to enjoin the continued licensing of charter schools run by the Real Party in Interest. Petitioners claimed the Board of Education was in violation of state statute and regulations in its procedures for licensing charter schools and specifically, the academies run by the Real Party. The issue was whether reference to Government Code section 11500 et seq. in the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) - which appeared to require that the State Board of Education (SBE) adopt procedures consistent with the APA when considering statewide charter petitions - was intended by the Legislature or was just "a scrivener's error".

ENVIRONMENTAL / LAND USE

  • This case involved a landmark agreement between the city and the local university to create a joint commission to plan the downtown area in a way that would accommodate the university's expansion needs but also respect the city's interest. Four residents filed this suit challenging the agreement on three grounds: the city should have filed an environmental impact report; the city had unlawfully delegated its authority over the downtown area to the university; and the city had violated the Public Records Act by withholding certain documents.
  • Case involving an attempt by preservationists to save a 65-year-old historic ship from being sold for scrap. Plaintiffs sued the Port contending that defendant violated the state's environmental laws by selling a historic asset to a scrap dealer without having first conducted a CEQA review. Plaintiff sought to overturn the sale and order the ship returned to the Port so alternative options to demolition could be studied. Defendant challenged that the ship was a "historic resource" subject to CEQA.
  • Handled companion cases which challenged a massive development project on the grounds that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared by the city and project developer was inadequate and in violation of CEQA. Of particular concern by certain members of the public was the planned partial destruction of a historic terminal. The EIR documents to be reviewed were extensive and detailed.

PERSONAL INJURY

  • Action arising out of an automobile accident in which plaintiff suffered personal injuries and decedent was killed. It was undisputed that the automobile accident occurred when defendant driver, who was 20 years old at the time, was driving while intoxicated. Plaintiffs allege that defendant became intoxicated from consuming alcohol at a party held by his employer. Additional defendants, employees at the time, organized the party, sent out invitations on Facebook and other social media, and obtained permission from a relative to use her property to hold the party. It was undisputed that the driver did not pay any money to attend the event although money was collected from some guests at the party to cover expenses. It was also undisputed that he got the alcohol from a cooler available to all guests. Finally, it was undisputed that persons attending the party were aware that the driver got drunk at the party, but he was not driving the vehicle when he left the party. Apparently, he was driven part way home and then took over the wheel, which is when the accident occurred. The case raised many significant and challenging issues respecting the scope of Civil Code section 1714(c) immunizing social hosts from liability for furnishing alcohol to minors and exceptions to the statute created under Business & Professions Code section 25602.

TOXIC TORT

  • Asbestos defense attorneys have attempted to introduce evidence that individuals who carry a genetic mutation, called BAP1, are susceptible to developing mesothelioma. In this case, Plaintiff was allegedly exposed to asbestos by her husband who worked at a location that was situated within a few miles of a garbage dump where it is contended defendant has over many years dumped asbestos containing refuse and debris. Plaintiff had close relatives who also contracted mesothelioma, a rare disease. Defendant, relying in large part upon opinions set forth by a scientist retained by defendant, sought to compel the production of a sample of Plaintiff’s lung tissue to test for the BAP1 genetic mutation. Plaintiffs objected citing their constitutional right to privacy among other objections, including relevancy. They also vigorously attacked the BAP1 defense as inadmissible “junk science”. While the matter was under submission, Plaintiff passed away and the issue then became whether her heirs could assert their own constitutional right to privacy.

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