Retired San Francisco judge Angela Bradstreet joins ADR Services

Angela M. Bradstreet, who retired as a San Francisco County Superior Court judge this month, is joining ADR Services Inc. as a mediator as of April 1.

"Settling cases is my passion," she said in a phone interview. "It's what I do the best. This gives me the perfect platform for that."

Bradstreet spent the last two years of her 11-year judicial career handling mandatory settlement conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she settled close to 100 cases since March 2019, saving what court officials estimated was seven years of trial time.

Her legal career included 25 years at Carroll, Burdick and McDonough, where she became the firm's first woman managing partner and one of the first LGBTQ managing partners in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before she was appointed to the bench, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her as California Labor Commissioner. Bradstreet also was president of the Bar Association of San Francisco, California Women Lawyers and the Queen's Bench Association.

"I have worked for the advancement of women in the legal profession," she said. "It's what drew me to Lucie Barron," the president of ADR Services.

Barron, in a phone interview, said Bradstreet is "a very high caliber judge" who is also very personable.

Bradstreet said she would specialize in employment, personal injury, commercial litigation and landlord-tenant disputes.

The native of Great Britain hopes to take advantage of remote technology to deal with mediations far beyond San Francisco. "I see myself handling cases from all over the place," Bradstreet said.