After 30 years in California, Judicate West vows to continue to grow and evolve

Much has changed for dispute resolution provider Judicate West over the past three decades, according to President and Co-founder Alan Brutman and Executive Vice President of Business Development Rosemarie Chiusano Drohan – who both helped start the company in 1993.

“I think judges have become a lot nicer,” Brutman said with a laugh, referring to the many retired bench officers who work these days as private neutrals for Judicate West.

“If you ask trial lawyers, they’ll probably tell you some of the hard-nosed judges that were difficult on the bench, that were sticklers for the law have reinvented themselves as kinder, gentler judges before they retire,” Brutman continued. “Judges tend to be a lot nicer and ready to roll up their sleeves and work hard alongside the lawyers without the separation of the bench and the bar.”

Brutman mentioned an industry term that was commonplace three decades ago is much less so these days.

“There seems to be an appreciation today for that judge who doesn’t still wear the robe in the private sector – we call it ‘robeitis,’” Brutman explained, chuckling again. “A lot of judges used to have robeitis when they retired. You don’t see too much robeitis anymore, but it was very prevalent in the early 2000s, and early in the 2010 decade. But it’s definitely dissipated over the last 8 or 9, 10 years.”

Brutman, Drohan and Judicate West’s Executive Vice President and Co-founder Var Fox were all working for another dispute resolution business in the early 1990s then called Judicate, the National Private Court System. But seeing a tremendous amount of untapped potential within the California legal market, the trio ultimately decided to team up and strike out on their own 30 years ago and opened what was then Judicate West’s first office in Irvine. Not much more than a year later, they relocated operations to a Santa Ana office building that has since served as the company’s headquarters for 29 years.

“We wanted to create a culture that was based on relationships and doing the right thing instead of ‘What’s the corporate thing to do?’” Drohan said. “That was a motivation for us to split off, so we could start our own culture in a market that we loved.”

Now defunct, Judicate, the National Private Court System was a highly profit-driven entity focused intently at the time on East Coast markets, according to Brutman, who said he, Drohan and Fox wanted to build something different.

“Listening and caring primarily were the two mantras that we always talked about in the early days, and that still carries the torch today,” Brutman said. “Listen to everybody and truly care about their position. We don’t always need to be right. … Our culture was to be the people’s choice. We wanted to earn everybody’s business case by case, lawyer by lawyer.”

Brutman said that Judicate West also applied a different revenue sharing strategy early.

“We set up a structure where there was a lot of good faith and trust amongst everybody – staff, management and the neutrals, who are independent contractors,” Brutman explained. “What that did was create a culture where everybody was equal and pulling for each other as opposed to a law firm model, … where often the more revenue you bring in the more you share in the profits. None of our neutrals compete with each other.”

Home today to a roster of just over 100 neutrals and about 85 employees, Judicate West operates offices in Santa Ana, downtown Los Angeles, Century City, San Diego, Sacramento and now in Oakland, which opened earlier this month.

As the company has grown, Drohan and Brutman both said meeting the evolving demands within California’s dispute resolution market has been critical. One of the largest changes over the past three decades has been the substantial shift from arbitration and private judging to mediation, according to Brutman, who said about 90% of his company’s business these days involves mediation.

Clients are also increasingly interested in neutral rosters that feature more diversity, according to Drohan.

“Cases are not one-size-fits-all; people want more options to choose from,” she said. “It’s important to us to provide neutrals with diverse backgrounds, legal specialties – former trial lawyers and state and federal court judges – and give the clients the best options possible.”

Drohan said that also means adding neutrals who specialize in practice areas where Judicate West has seen a sizable spike in disputes.

“Family law is certainly one of them,” she said. “Probate is one of them. … Employment mediators – that’s been the biggest trend. We thought it was going to be a trend 10 years ago, and we were like, ‘I wonder how long this trend is going to last.’ The filings for employment cases are definitely the majority in the courts.”

Brutman mentioned construction defect as another practice area where Judicate West expects to see dispute resolution demand increase.

“That market was huge, and then it fizzled out,” he explained. “Now that there’s so much construction going on in the world, that’s going to come back. Next time, we’ll be a much bigger player. We’re more geared up for it now.”

Zoom – fueled by the COVID crisis – has also created a seismic shift in how disputes are now resolved. And four out of every five cases Judicate West handles these days are conducted at least in part over Zoom, according to Brutman, who would prefer that number were nowhere near as high.

“There is no substitute for coming to our space, and we want to see the business go back to pre-COVID ways,” Brutman said, noting that Judicate West has always seen itself as something of a hospitality company and one that’s provided catered meals at no extra cost for clients at their offices for years.

“We’re not giving up our real estate footprint,” Brutman continued. “We’re optimistic that people will start to realize that as much as Zoom has been very effective during the pandemic, now that the pandemic’s in the rearview mirror, that effectiveness is starting to dissipate by small percentages and enough so that eventually it’s going to catch up to where people want the added value of in-person.”

Even so, Drohan and Brutman made it clear that – just like they did when starting out in 1993 – Judicate West will continue to operate with a philosophy based on listening to and caring about those they do business with.

“We never want to stop growing and evolving but always with the client’s needs in mind,” Drohan said, “making sure that no matter how big we get, we always give that mom-and-pop feel from our organization and that they know they’re cared for.”