Robert Fairbank – following a 37-year career as a litigator and trial lawyer – established Fairbank ADR in 2014 as an alternative dispute resolution entity that specializes in the mediation of multi-million-dollar, complex civil matters. Fairbank ADR is the successor to Fairbank & Vincent, which Fairbank co-founded in 1996 after beginning his career as an associate (1977-1984) and then partner (1984-1996) at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

In June 2024, Fairbank was recognized for the second year in a row as a Band 1 Nationwide Mediator in the USA by Chambers and Partners (Band 2 in 2021 & 2022; Band 3 in 2020; Recognized Practitioner in 2019). He was recognized by Best Lawyers USA as Los Angeles’ Mediation Lawyer of the Year in 2022, and has been recognized by Best Lawyers USA since 2016.

From 2002-2009, Fairbank served as an independent consultant for the Regents of the University of California in the Enron, WorldCom, AOL Time Warner, and Dynegy federal securities cases. He also acted as counsel for boards or independent committees of boards of Mattel, Semtech, and Techniclone in the investigation or defense of threatened or filed derivative actions. His individual director and officer representations included the chief financial officers of IndyMac Bank, PFF Bank, Homestore.com, and Tenet Healthcare Corporation; Board members of La Jolla Bank, Vineyard Bank, and MetroPacific Bank; and officers of New Century Financial and Fidelity Federal Bank.

At Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Fairbank had extensive experience in “bet-the-company” cases, including a successful antitrust jury trial for defendant National Gypsum, the successful defense of the first two nationwide conspiracy/medical malpractice trials involving National Medical Enterprises (now Tenet Healthcare Corporation), and a series of successful trials throughout the country in defense of Farmers Insurance Company in one of the first insurance industry hostile takeovers.

Fairbank has been an adjunct professor at Stanford Law and Business Schools (2007) and USC Gould School of Law (2004-present), teaching a seminar titled “Corporate Fraud.” He is also the co-author of California Practice Guide – Civil Trials and Evidence (The Rutter Group), the leading treatise on California civil trial practice.

Fairbank has served as the co-chair of the Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference (2001-2002), and the past president of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (1989-1990). He was also a member of the Judicial Council’s Bench and Bar Committee on Local Rules and served as Chair of the Civil Trials Subcommittee (1990-1992).

Fairbank received his AB from Stanford University, his MLS from the University of California, Berkeley, and his JD from New York University, where he served on the NYU Law Review. In 1995, he was recognized by the first “Law Who’s Who” in Los Angeles Business Journal, which features the 100 most prominent business attorneys in Los Angeles.