Lecturer Bios
John M. Barkett, Esq.
Mr. Barkett is a partner at the law firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. in its Miami office. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (B.A. Government, 1972, summa cum laude) and the Yale Law School (J.D. 1975) and served as a law clerk to the Honorable David W. Dyer on the old Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Barkett is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law. He is also the recipient of one of the 2011 Burton Awards for Legal Achievement honoring lawyers for distinguished legal writing. In March 2012, the Chief Justice appointed Mr. Barkett to serve on the Advisory Committee for Civil Rules of the Federal Judicial Conference.
Mr. Barkett has, over the years, been a commercial litigator (contract and corporate disputes, employment, trademark, and antitrust), environmental litigator (CERCLA, RCRA, and toxic tort), and, for the past several years, a peacemaker and problem solver, serving as an arbitrator, mediator, facilitator, or allocator in a variety of environmental, commercial, or reinsurance contexts. He is a certified mediator under the rules of the Supreme Court of Florida and the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida and a member of the London Court of International Arbitration and the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, and serves on the AAA and ICDR roster of neutrals, the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution’s “Panel of Distinguished Neutrals,” and the National Roster of Environmental Dispute Resolution and Consensus Building Professionals maintained by the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. He has served or is serving as a neutral in scores of matters involving in the aggregate more than $4 billion. He has conducted or is conducting commercial domestic and international arbitrations under AAA, LCIA, ICDR, UNCITRAL, and CPR rules and has conducted ad hoc arbitrations. In November 2003, he was appointed by the presiding judge to serve as the Special Master to oversee the implementation and enforcement of the 1992 Consent Decree between the United States and the State of Florida relating to the restoration of the Florida Everglades. He also consults with major corporations on the evaluation of legal strategy and risk in commercial disputes, conducts independent investigations where such services are needed, and works with other lawyers on questions of legal ethics.
Mr. Barkett has published two books, E-Discovery: Twenty Questions and Answers, (Chicago: First Chair Press, 2008) and The Ethics of E-Discovery (Chicago: First Chair Press, 2009). Mr. Barkett has also prepared analyses of the Roberts Court the past six years, in addition to a number of other articles on a variety of topics. He is the author of Ethical Issues in Environmental Dispute Resolution, a chapter in the ABA publication, Environmental Dispute Resolution, An Anthology of Practical Experience (July 2002) and the editor and one of the authors of the ABA Section of Litigation’s Monograph, Ex Parte Contacts with Former Employees (Environmental Litigation Committee, October 2002).
Mr. Barkett is a Fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators and the American College of Environmental Lawyers and also a former member of the Council of the ABA Section of Litigation. At the University of Miami Law School, Mr. Barkett teaches two courses, “Environmental Litigation” and “E-Discovery.”
Mr. Barkett has been recognized in the areas of alternative dispute resolution or environmental law in a number of lawyer-recognition publications, including Who’s Who Legal (International Bar Association) (since 2005); Best Lawyers in America (National Law Journal) (since 2005); Legal Elite (Florida Trend) (since 2004), Florida Super Lawyers (since 2008), and Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers (since 2004). In 2013, Best Lawyers selected him as “Environmental Lawyer of the Year” in Miami.
Seth H. Row, Esq.
Seth is an experienced litigator and legal advisor with an active practice in both Oregon and Washington. Seth focuses on helping corporate clients resolve complex business, insurance, and employment disputes efficiently and successfully, whether through litigation, arbitration, or negotiated settlement. Primarily Seth serves clients in the construction, manufacturing and technology, and retail sectors. Seth has handled bench and jury trials in the areas of insurance coverage, employment discrimination, and commercial disputes both in federal courts and in state courts in Washington and Oregon, and also in arbitration through AAA, JAMS, and privately.
Prior to joining PFG, Seth practiced with Holland & Knight LLP, an Am Law 100 firm, and before that with a large regional firm. Prior to entering private practice, Seth was law clerk to a federal trial judge in the Eastern District of Washington. Since 2009 Seth has been included as a "Rising Star" in Oregon Super Lawyers®. He is a frequent speaker and author on electronic discovery and pre-trial practice. Since 2010 he has been co-editor of the largest American Bar Association publication devoted to pre-trial practice and discovery.
