Contact Bruce S Ross

Preeminent in the realm of trust, estate and conservatorship disputes, Bruce S. Ross provides mediation and arbitration services that are strengthened by his decades of experience as a trial lawyer. He has more than 45 years of experience with high-value fiduciary litigation and the resolution of estate, trust, protective and financial elder abuse proceedings and disputes. Bruce is ranked by Chambers High Net Worth 2017 in its highest tier, Band 1 in Private Wealth Disputes, across the United States of America. Bruce also has been instrumental in the resolution of trust and estate disputes internationally, including in Switzerland, Israel, Nicaragua, Greece and Australia.

Known for a facilitative mediation style marked by effective listening, insightful identification of core issues and a high emotional IQ, Bruce also brings a tremendous depth of substantive knowledge to his mediation and arbitration engagements.

Bruce achieved several high-profile victories during his tenure as chair of a major international firm's national Estate and Trust Dispute Resolution Team. He played major roles in the highly publicized conservatorship of Mickey Rooney and the complex, disputed $300 million estate of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, which focused on a challenge to a will executed when Madame Clark was 98 years old. Bruce has appeared as an expert witness in cases across the country and has served as a consultant on multi-jurisdictional and international disputes.

After earning his undergraduate degree from Oberlin College, Bruce received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Bruce, a California resident is also a frequent visitor to his second home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and enjoys working with colleagues and parties across the country and internationally.

From 1986 through 2012, Bruce was the principal author and, since 2012 to date, has been the co-author of The Rutter Group's California Practice Guide: Probate, considered one of the leading treatises on California probate issues.

A Past President and Regent Emeritus of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Bruce was the only ACTEC president at the time of his tenure who had built his career as a successful trial lawyer. Bruce was also the leading force behind the 1993 adoption of the ACTEC Commentaries On the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Bruce recently completed a three-year term as a Commissioner on the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging. Bruce is an Academician in the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law and a past member of its Executive Council.

In his role as an expert witness, Bruce has served over the years in both bench and jury trials in cases involving fiduciary standards of care, estate and trust administration, will contests, the trust industry, and professional responsibility and professional malpractice cases.

Jim Melamed CEO Mediate.com