Biography

Hon. Diane M. Welsh (Ret.) is highly respected for her ability to successfully resolve disputes with sensitivity, patience, and persistence. As a U.S. Magistrate Judge for 12 years and since joining JAMS, she has managed and resolved virtually every type of complex dispute. Specifically, Judge Welsh has extraordinary skill in resolving high-stake multi-party commercial disputes, employment, and catastrophic personal injury cases.

ADR Experience and Qualifications

  • Conducted nearly 1,800 settlement conferences as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in virtually every area of civil litigation, including complex commercial, insurance, class action, mass torts, employment, serious personal injury, product liability, professional liability malpractice, antitrust, securities, government, civil rights, environmental, education, aviation, intellectual property, maritime, product liability, real estate, construction, consumer, sports, and entertainment
  • Served on the Alternative Dispute Resolution committee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for 10 years, drafting local federal court rules for court-annexed mediation program
  • Frequent speaker at Continuing Legal Education programs on settlement negotiation, mediation, and the ADR Act

Representative Matters

  • Antitrust: Claims of conspiracy by Internet bond trader against major brokers and dealers
  • Aviation: Mediated claims by passengers of Swissair flight 111; accidents involving private planes; plane that crashed into a house resulting in injuries to the resident
  • Civil Rights: High profile case on behalf of severely abused child against private foster care placement agency and government agencies; claim against school district on behalf of special education student raped by other students in classroom supervised by a substitute teacher
  • Class Actions: RICO allegations brought by home buyers alleging specific violations; claims involving federal and state consumer protection statutes against Builder, Mortgage Brokers, Appraiser, and Mortgage Lender; ERISA/Securities Fraud class action by former employees of national insurance company; presided over complex discovery disputes in the fen-phen diet drug litigation and mediated disputes between class counsel and trust of the settlement fund
  • Commercial: Successfully mediated hundreds of business disputes involving breach of contract, corporate, franchise, licensing, partnership, shareholder's rights, and breach of warranty claims
  • Construction: Claim by general contractor against regional transportation authority totaling more than $20 million dollars of cost overruns due to post contract federal requirements regarding lead paint abatement
  • Employment: Successfully mediated over 500 employment cases involving claims of discrimination, retaliation, harassment, class action wage and hour, and breach of contract
  • Environmental: Claims by the USA and state against more than twenty defendants in major environmental Superfund case
  • Insurance: Mediated claims of bad faith, coverage, property damage, reinsurance, and subrogation
  • Personal Injury: Successfully mediated cases involving complex catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death, workplace injuries, nursing home negligence, product liability, motor vehicle, toxic torts, municipal and governmental tort liability, Dram shop/liquor liability, and premises liability
Professional Liability: Mediated numerous cases involving legal

Specialties

Antitrust

Arbitration

Aviation

Business/Commercial

Civil Rights

Class Action/Mass Tort

Construction Defect

Education/Schools

Employment

Entertainment and Sports

Environmental

Federal Judge

Financial Markets

Governmental/Public Agency

Insurance

Intellectual Property

Maritime/Admiralty

Personal Injury/Torts

Professional Liability

Real Property

Securities

Surety

Locations
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

New York, New York

Available to hear cases nationwide.


Recognized as Mediation "Lawyer of the Year", Philadelphia, Best Lawyers in America, 2014

Named as one of the "Best Lawyers in America" and as a "Super Lawyer" in ADR Specialty


Comments:

“She is a superb settler of cases. She is tenacious, persistent and imaginative.”

“In complicated civil cases, she is very impressive.”

“Very few judges could settle the cases she can settle because they don’t take the time to understand them.”

“She is balanced. She goes out of her way to demonstrate to each party that she is not biased toward either party.”

- Almanac of the Federal Judiciary