Professional
Karl is on the faculty of the London School of Mediation and has been a mediator since 2019. In addition to qualifying as a mediator with the London School of Mediation in 2021, Karl has completed mediation training through the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution (Pepperdine University) (2019) and Harvard Law School (2021).
Over the past 30 years Karl has worked as a trial lawyer in northern California where he has enjoyed an active litigation practice handling cases for both defendants and plaintiffs in a variety of areas, including breach of contract, business, construction, construction defect, insurance bad faith, insurance coverage, negligence, premises liability and real estate. His emphasis was on complex construction defect cases where Karl represented homeowners, commercial building owners, general contractors, subcontractors, building associations, hospitals, and casinos. In this arena, Karl obtained settlements and verdicts on behalf of his clients totaling more than one hundred million dollars.
Having served as lead counsel in hundreds of mediations, Karl developed a fascination with mediation approaches and techniques which led him to participate in a variety of mediation programs. In 2019, he made the decision to wind down his litigation practice to develop a dispute resolution practice. Karl maintains offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to offering mediation services in the United Kingdom.
Karl’s passion for mediation and breadth of experience make him ideally suited to facilitate resolution of a wide range of disputes. As well as acting as a mediator in complex, multi-party construction disputes (the largest to date involving eighteen parties), non-complex construction disputes, contractual disputes, business disputes and premises liability disputes, Karl provides volunteer mediation services to the California court system through the Congress of Neutrals.
Memberships
American Bar Association (Dispute Resolution Section)
California State Bar
International Mediation InstituteEducation
Education
Karl obtained his LLB from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1987 and a law degree equivalency from the University of British Columbia, Canada in 1989. He was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor in British Columbia, Canada in 1990 (no longer practicing) and as an Attorney at Law in the State of California, USA in 1991.