About Brian Purtill

Brian J. Purtill has been a mediator forever. As the third of six children and the middle of three boys, with a pacifist father who didn’t allow fighting of any kind, Brian learned early how to diffuse threatening situations. From his earliest neighborhood childhood memories, into adulthood, work life, law school and lawyering, his first resort in the face of conflict has been to seek the peace, not fan the flames. He learned quickly that fighting fire with fire just burned everyone, and usually only worked in the forest.

But his law career began in 1984 in the boxing arena of civil litigation. The rules there appealed to his sense of fairness and his need to seek resolution. And even though it was confrontational and competitive, which also appealed to Brian’s sense of advocacy, he soon dedicated himself to being a “civil” Civil Litigator. During his first twelve years of litigation, he had several jury and court trials, but the vast majority of his cases settled, some even without much discovery. As the use of mediation became more common, in 1996 Brian enrolled in the first of his many mediator training programs. In that same year, he joined the panel of practicing attorneys at Arbitration & Mediation Center (AMC) in Santa Rosa, California, and has been mediating and arbitrating cases there ever since.

Brian has enjoyed a great variety in his practice. He started in insurance defense work, handling automobile, general liability, premises liability, property damage, construction-defect and insurance coverage and bad faith claims. He then partnered with a business transactional and litigation attorney and handled plaintiff’s personal injury and wrongful death claims, first-party insurance coverage disputes, business disputes and partnership dissolutions, mechanics’ lien and other construction law matters, and real estate disputes. He also began advising contractors and design professionals on their contractual and other on-the-job transactions. The insurance world came back to him in 1997, and he again handled defense cases of different types, primarily personal injury and construction-defect litigation. His two-man partnership ended in 2002, and after two years on his own, he joined Spaulding McCullough & Tansil LLP (SMT) in 2004, where he added trusts and estate matters and elder abuse litigation, among other types of claims. Brian stopped accepting insurance defense assignments in 2006, and as of August 1, 2014, he left SMT and ended his litigation career entirely to focus full time on his dispute resolution practice. Since August 15, 2018, he has been the Dean at Empire College School of Law in Santa Rosa, California, and now splits his time between those duties and his mediation practice.

Brian is committed to his community, having served on several non-profit boards and the Sonoma County Bar Association for many years. He has been married over 40 years and raised three children to adulthood here in Sonoma County. He is an amateur carpenter/woodworker, and an avid swimmer. He regularly attempts to play golf and is a lover of the outdoors.

Experience and Training

Litigation Experience (not all inclusive):

Dispute Resolution Experience (not all inclusive):

Primary ADR Trainings (not all inclusive):

• 1996 Mediation Fundamentals: Gary Friedman 40 hours
• 1999 Business Mediation : Ron Kelly, UC Berkeley Extension campus 40 hours
• 2010 The Mastery of Collaborative Practice: Collaborative Practice Ctr. 16 hours
• 2011 Fundamentals of Elder Mediation: Sonoma State University 16 hours
• 2013 Impasse is a Fallacy: American Institute of Mediation 10 hours
• 2015 Divorce Mediation: Nancy Foster/Jessica Nottini 16 hours
• 2015 The End Game: Center for Understanding in Conflict 7 hours

Recent Substantive Law Trainings:

• 2014 Family Law Boot Camp, Garret C. Dailey, Esq. 13 hours
• 2014 Special Custody Issues as Minor’s Counsel; SCBA 8 hours

Click here to download Brian J. Purtill’s Curriculum Vitae.

 

 

“We’ve all heard the saying: ‘A good settlement is one where all parties are equally upset with the result.’ I have a different take – the best result is one in which all are equally pleased. That is how most of my mediations end; it’s how I can best serve the parties.”

– Brian J. Purtill