Welcome
Thomas Duffy is dedicated to helping businesses and people end their disputes and avoid the high cost, time delays, and risks of litigation by serving as an effective professional mediator, through Zoom or in person.
In the complex and rapidly moving world of today’s business culture, when a business dispute morphs into a litigation matter, the results are often counter productive. Litigation is expensive and difficult to control. Decisions are made by people (judges and juries) who may not understand their business or sympathize with the economic reasons for a business decision. Often the successful litigant cannot recover the costs and expenses of the litigation, so the net recovery is less than anticipated. Court schedules are ever more crowded and the time to trial is longer and longer.
Mediation with an experienced mediator allows the parties an opportunity to settle their differences short of going to trial. Often the mediation process with the intervention of an effective neutral mediator results in resolution of disputes which neither party thought could happen.
Mr. Duffy brings 40 years of experience in the trial and appellate courts to bear on the resolution of business problems and disputes. Mr. Duffy, who is rated “AV” by Martindale-Hubbell (the highest peer-rating available) has substantial experience in construction issues, real estate problems, partition cases, partnership and corporate issues, creditors’ remedies and debtors’ protection matters, bankruptcy disputes and professional malpractice cases. He has been lead counsel in cases before the United States Supreme Court and various courts of appeal throughout California, including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and numerous California District Courts of Appeal.
Mr. Duffy is a member of the US Supreme Court Bar Association, the Santa Clara County Bar Association and the Monterey County Bar Association. Mr. Duffy began his legal career in 1975 with Stark, Stewart, Simon & Sparrowe in Oakland, California, and then moved his practice to Monterey, where he co-founded Duffy & Guenther, a commercial litigation and business firm. He attended Dartmouth College and Stanford University (Stanford A.B. 1971), and USC Law School (selected for USC Law Review) and Boalt Hall (Berkeley) Law School (Boalt Hall J.D. 1975) (Board of Editors, Industrial Relation Law Quarterly). Published cases include Karahalios v. National Federation of Federal Employees, 489 U.S. 527, 109 S.Ct. 1282, 103 L.Ed.2d 539 (1989); In re Jercich, 238 F.3d 1202 (9th Cir. 2001).
For many years, Mr. Duffy has served as a member of the Monterey County Superior Court Mediation Panel and the Northern District of California Bankruptcy Dispute Resolution Panel.
Mr. Duffy is available to act as a mediator throughout Northern and Central California.
