Victoria Pynchon

San Diego, California
death_date=
death_place=
occupation=Mediation attorney, author, writer, editor, adjunct professor
salary=
networth=
spouse=Stephen Goldberg
website= [http://www.settlenow.com/ Settle It Now]
footnotes=
children=2 stepchildren

Victoria "Vickie" Pynchon (born Victoria Pike May 1, 1952 in San Diego, California) is an American lawyer, attorney mediator, writer, author and adjunct professor based in Los Angeles. Pynchon is best known for her daily blogs about negotiating.

Early years

Ms. Pynchon grew up in La Mesa in San Diego County, graduating from La Mesa Junior High School, where she was valedictorian, then graduating in 1970 from Helix High School.

Education

In 1975, Pynchon graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in literature from the University of California, San Diego. She moved to New York City and worked for two years as a paralegal for a Midtown Manhattan law firm, and then she enrolled in UC Davis School of Law, where in 1980 she obtained her law degree with Order of the Coif scholastic honors. After leaving a 25-year litigation practice, Pynchon in May 2006 was awarded her master of laws degree in dispute resolution from Pepperdine University School of Law's Straus Institute.

Career

Ms. Pynchon was admitted in 1980 to the State Bar of California, to the U.S. District Courts for the Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern Districts of California in 1985, and to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, also in 1985.

She began her legal career in Sacramento, California, practicing for four years before moving to Los Angeles to teach at California State University at Northridge as an assistant professor of business law. She commenced her legal practice in 1987 in Los Angeles with the Philadelphia law firm of Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz. Later, she practiced with the Los Angeles firm of Buchalter, Nemer, and the San Francisco firm, Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft. Throughout her career as a commercial litigator, Ms. Pynchon specialized in catastrophic insurance coverage disputes, intellectual property, antitrust, unfair competition, and securities fraud litigation. [ [http://www.adjudicateinc.com/panel-show.asp?m_idx=260 Panelist, Adjudicate West] ]

In 2004, Pynchon founded her own firm, Settle It Now Dispute Resolution Services. She also joined Judicate West, an alternative dispute resolution firm in Southern California. [ [http://www.adjudicateinc.com/panel-show.asp?m_idx=260 Judicate West ] ] [ [http://www.abajournal.com/blawgs/settle-it-now-negotiation-blog/Founder, Settle It Now] ]

Ms. Pynchon has lectured and published widely. She is a member of the adjunct faculty at Pepperdine University School of Law, Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution [ [http://www.scmediation.org/Faculty listing, Pepperdine University School of Law] ] , and she is a past lecturer at the International Mediation and Arbitration Conference. She's currently a member of the faculty at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, for which she teaches deposition and beginning trial skills, [ [http://www.scmediation.org/facultylisting.asp Faculty member, National Institute of Trial Advocacy] ] and was on the board in 2006 of the Southern California Mediation Association.

Pynchon is on the Diversity Task Force for the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution [ [http://www.cpradr.org/commMembers.asp?filnm=DVTF Diversity Task Force listing] ] [http://www.cpradr.org/Ques_bio.asp?cont=51516] and is a member of the Attorney Settlement Officer Panel for the United States District Court for the Central District of California. [ [http://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/cacd/AttySetPan.nsf/d2a66336794a5d8388256cb700642211/490ef055128c9c1a88256fb10060c7de?OpenDocument Member, Attorney Settlement Officer Panel] ]

Writing

She is editor-in-chief of the online quarterly literary journal, R-KV-R-Y [ [http://ninetymeetingsinninetydays.com/aboutrkvry.html Editor-in-chief, quarterly literary journal] ] , which is included in Dzanc Books' Best of the Web anthology series of literature for 2008. [ [http://emergingwriters.typepad.com/dzanc_books/2007/08/dzanc-books-to-.html Dzanc Books: Dzanc Books To Publish Best Of The Web Anthology Series ] ] In addition, she co-writes a column for The Complete Lawyer. [ [http://www.thecompletelawyer.com/volume4/issue2/article.php?ppaid=6314&rmode=full Columnist, "The Complete Lawyer"] ]

Her Settle It Now negotiation law blog is featured on Mediate.com. [ [http://www.mediate.com/blogs/ Mediate.com Featured Blogs ] ] Pynchon's book, "A" is for Donkey: The ABC's of Conflict Resolution", is due out from Janis Publications in October 2008. [ [http://www.janispublications.com/shop/page.cgi?Abbreviation=home&SessionId=127176360933 Author, "The ABC's of Conflict Resolution"] ]

Pynchon is a former newsletter editor at Southern California Mediation Association. [ [http://www.scmediation.org/mediation_scma_committees.asp Former editor, Southern California Mediation Association's newsletter] ]

Personal life

Donald Pike, her late father, was a lawyer and a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner who sat on the bench in family court. Pynchon lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Stephen Goldberg, who is also an attorney.

External links

* [http://www.negotiationlawblog.com/ Settle It Now negotiation blog]
* [http://www.settlenow.com/ Settle It Now official site]
* [http://www.ipadrblog.com/ The IPR ADR blog]
* [http://ninetymeetingsinninetydays.com/ r.kv.r.y. quarterly literary journal]
* [http://niacr.org/ Featured mediation article by Victoria Pynchon]
* [http://www.etext.org/Zines/Kudzu/current/Pynchon1.html "Dangerous Places," by Victoria Pynchon, published in Kudzu digital quarterly]
* [http://mediatortech.com/success-leaves-clues-victoria-pynchon/ Interview of Vickie Pynchon by Tammy Lenski]
* [http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=11435719&trk=mh_jgrp&goback=%2Ehom LinkedIn profile (retrieved 8/20/08)]

Notes