Jack Esher has represented lenders, trustees, creditors’ committees, business debtors, and sophisticated consumer debtors in bankruptcy cases for over 25 years. He has served as a mediator or arbitrator in bankruptcy and commercial matters for more than 20 years.

Combining his extensive experience in all facets of bankruptcy practice with the no-nonsense, practical solutions available through skillful negotiation, Mr. Esher has developed a national reputation for achieving settlements in difficult cases that would otherwise become protracted and expensive.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Esher was one of the pioneers in the field of alternative dispute resolution. More recently, he has been a key figure in advocating for the use of ADR techniques in bankruptcy proceedings. He recently founded, with Howard Gorney, the Bankruptcy Mediation Panel at Mediation Works Incorporated in Boston (www.mwi.org). He is co-author of the acclaimed American Bankruptcy Institute publication: The ABI Guide to Bankruptcy Mediation (2005), and was recently appointed to the Register of Mediators for the Delaware Bankruptcy Court.

Previously, Mr. Esher was a Partner in the Boston law firms of Riemer & Braunstein and Rubin and Rudman, where he managed the firm’s bankruptcy practice. He began practicing law as a bankruptcy lawyer in San Francisco with the former Murphy, Weir & Butler. Mr. Esher was a member of the distinguished panel of mediators and arbitrators at JAMS, an internationally recognized leader in the field of ADR, from 1996 until 2006. Mr. Esher has been a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute for over fifteen years, and was the Founding Chair of the ADR Committee of the ABI, serving in that position from 1994 to 2001. He currently serves on the Northeast Conference Organizing Committee.

Mr. Esher is a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy and ADR topics. He has conducted mediation trainings for judges, attorneys, and business leaders in the United States and in Thailand. His authored works include Arbitration and Judicial Discretion (Norton Adviser, 2006); Claim Resolution Facilities (ABA, 2003); How to Succeed in Mediation Without Trying…Your Case (ABI, 2002); Valuing and Selling Intellectual Property (ABI, 2000); The Structured Negotiation Process, (ABI, 1999); Chapter 36, Alternative Dispute Resolution in Bankruptcy Practice (J.Esher & R.Tilton), Chapter 11 Theory and Practice (LRP Publications, 1998) and The Mediation Manual (ABI 1996).

Mr. Esher is also an avid musician and a founding member of the ABI “house band” known as the Indubitable Equivalents (www.abiband.com), performing at conferences around the country. He is also a member of the Boston-based group Whose Muddy Shoes (www.whosemuddyshoes.com), which performs acoustic music throughout New England and is in the process of producing a second CD.

Mr. Esher is admitted to the Federal and state courts in California and Massachusetts. He holds a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law. He lives in Swampscott with his wife Linda, and has two children, Joel 21 and Samantha 19.