Lou Marlin is a California native.  He was a member of the first freshman class at the University of California Irvine, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1969.  While at UCI he sat on the committee responsible for choosing the Anteater mascot.  Thereafter, he attended the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, earning his Juris Doctorate degree in 1972, and became a member of the California Bar the same year.

After working as an associate at Sonenshine & Armstrong for a year, he started his own practice (The Law Offices of Louis M. Marlin) in 1973.  As with many new practices, his “specialty” was taking any case that walked in his door that met two criteria: (1) he was competent to handle the case, and (2) the client or the case represented the realistic possibility of getting paid.  As his practice grew, Mr. Marlin began to find his clients sought him out for representation for complex litigation matters, often resulting in his taking matters to verdict in both jury and bench trials.

One of those complex matters involved a case which was called “The Center for Feeling Therapy” litigation, a very complex matter involving over 50 named plaintiffs, many defendants, and numerous defense firms.  Mr. Marlin acted as one of the two lead counsel on the defense side of that case, with the other lead counsel being Stanley Saltzman.  As a result of working closely together, Lou and Stan formed Marlin & Saltzman, a partnership that lasted 30 years until Lou became a full time neutral.

For approximately 17 years, Marlin & Saltzman focused on complex, multi-party and class action litigation, representing numerous defendants, including the Regents of the University of California.  In 2002, the firm was asked to become involved in several wage and hour class actions as plaintiffs’ counsel, which ultimately resulted in Marlin & Saltzman changing its emphasis from defense work to plaintiff’s work.

During his years of practice, Mr. Marlin handled numerous jury and bench trials to conclusion.  He also argued several cases before various California Courts of Appeal, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeal, and the California Supreme Court.

In 2015, after 43 years as a litigator as both defense and plaintiff counsel, Mr. Marlin retired from the firm and joined JAMS as a neutral, having mediated several cases while still at Marlin & Saltzman and finding that he thoroughly enjoyed that experience.  Lou quickly built a successful practice as a neutral, using his unique style of moving the parties quickly to address the key issue in most mediations – the monetary dispute, to achieve a significantly high success rate.

As of June 1, 2019, Mr. Marlin began working entirely independently under the title Louis Marlin Mediation, LLC.  He provides services throughout California and neighboring states, and nationwide as needed.