Michael Rainey is a dispute resolution expert with a rich combination of experience across the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), legal, academic, business, and military arenas. He has a highly successful track record handling complex, high-stakes disputes and teaching organizations and students how to effectively resolve conflict.
Through Pepperdine, private practice and key mediation affiliations, Michael has had a profound influence on the emergence of effective ADR practices. He is an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine’s Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution, recognized as the leading post-graduate school in Alternative Dispute Resolution in the nation, and an Instructor at Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management. Michael earned his Masters of Law (LL.M.) in Dispute Resolution in Straus Institute’s first graduating class for this degree. He has won the Outstanding Teaching Award twice and authored the Business Negotiation & Resolution of Conflict course and textbook.
Michael is an appointed ADR panel member on the United States District Court and holds prominent roles on several other mediation panels. As a result of Michael’s expertise in mediation, the California Senate invited him to testify in their hearings to shape requirements for mediator certification.
Given his long-standing belief in the value of appropriate dispute resolution, Michael achieved his certification as a mediator in the early stages of the development of this credential. Prior to this, he successfully tried cases at the Supreme Court level and gained extensive litigation experience as both in-house and outside counsel, earning the highest possible Martindale-Hubbell AV® litigator rating via peer review.
ADR Experience
- Private mediation and arbitration for 16 years in the following areas: Business Disputes, Real Estate, Personal Injury, Product Liability, Construction Defect, Child Custody and Family Law.
- Appointed member on the United States District Court, Central Court District ADR panel.
- Mediator on the Los Angeles Superior Court and Ventura Superior Court panels.
- Mediator on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission panel.
- Mediator on the United States Postal Service panel.
- Contract mediator for the California Department of Insurance.
- Former JAMS/Endispute panel member.