Biography: Environment

John Barkett has been a partner with SHB since June 2000 following 14 years of practice in a litigation boutique that, in part, bore his name, and 11 years of litigation work at another Miami law firm.

Over the years, John has been a commercial litigator (contract disputes, employment, antitrust and trademark), independent investigator (sexual harassment cases), environmental litigator (CERCLA, RCRA and toxic tort), environmental counsellor (common counsel at major superfund sites, and adviser on real estate, loan, and merger and acquisition questions involving environmental issues and assessments) and, for the past several years, a peacemaker and problem solver, serving as an arbitrator, mediator, facilitator or allocator in a variety of substantive contexts. He has served or is serving as a neutral in approximately 50 matters involving in the aggregate more than US$400 million. Among these matters, John has served as a neutral in five large multi-party environmental cases, where he supervised all discovery, including personally conducting depositions/interviews of witnesses, and prepared findings and conclusions that served as the basis of settlement; and has conducted ad hoc arbitrations as well as arbitrations under CPR, AAA, and LCIA rules. Over several years, John also successfully facilitated the resolution of in excess of 2,000 claims against potentially responsible parties in connection with two used oil superfund sites in Florida. In November 2003, John was appointed to serve as the special master to oversee the implementation and enforcement of the 1992 Consent Decree (SD Fla) between the United States and the state of Florida relating to the multibillion-dollar restoration of the Florida Everglades, and was asked by Kenneth Feinberg to assist his office in mediating post-hurricane insurer disputes in Florida. John also consults with major corporations on the evaluation of legal strategy and litigation risk in a variety of substantive areas of law and on implementation of records management protocols in both a litigation and non-litigation context.

John serves on the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution's Panel of Distinguished Neutrals. He was a guest lecturer in the International Commercial Arbitration class at Yale Law School on alternatives to arbitration and the use of 'what if' analyses in dispute resolution. He has also completed the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators' assessment workshop and was a participant and speaker at the September 2007 European Users' Symposium organised by the London Court of International Arbitration. In 2006, John completed the Florida Certified Mediator Training Program.

John is a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers and a member of the council of the ABA section of litigation. He is a former co-chair of the environmental litigation committee of the section of litigation. He is also a member of the editorial board of Natural Resources & Environment published by the ABA section of environment, energy and resources. He is the author of A Database Analysis of the Superfund Allocation Case Law (2003), a digest of federal court opinions addressing allocation factors and outcomes. He is editor and a contributing author of the ABA Monograph, Ex Parte Contacts With Former Employees (Environmental Litigation Committee, October 2002). He also wrote 'Ethical Issues in Environmental Dispute Resolution', a chapter in the ABA publication Environmental Dispute Resolution, An Anthology of Practical Experience (July 2002). Among his other works is a terrorism-related article, 'If Terror Reigns, Will Torts Follow?', 9Widener Law Symposium 485 (2003). Most recently, he is the author of the ABA publications, E-Discovery Twenty Questions and Answers (2008) and The Ethics of E-Discovery (2009). John is also a contributing author to SHB's E-Discovery Litigation Update.

John serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami Law School (Environmental Litigation and Policy). On behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, John also served as an evaluator of an EPA training programme 'Negotiation Strategies for Achieving Environmental Justice'. John also served as a Hearing Officer (pro bono) for the Dade County School Board for 18 years.

John received his JD from Yale Law School in 1975. He received his BA, summa cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame in 1972.