John M. Barkett

John has been a partner with Shook Hardy & Bacon since June 2000 following 14 years of practice in a litigation boutique that, in part, bore his name, and 11 years of litigation work at another Miami law firm.
Over the years, John has been a commercial litigator (contract disputes, employment, antitrust and trademark), independent investigator (sexual harassment cases), environmental litigator (CERCLA, RCRA, Clean Water Act, NEPA, and toxic tort), environmental counselor (common counsel at major Superfund sites, and advisor on real estate, loan and merger, and acquisition questions involving environmental issues and assessments), and, for the past several years, a peacemaker and problem solver, serving as an arbitrator, mediator, facilitator or allocator in a variety of substantive contexts. He has served or is serving as a neutral in over 50 matters involving in the aggregate more than $400 million. Among these matters, John has served as a neutral in five large multi-party environmental cases, where he supervised all discovery, including personally conducting depositions/interviews of witnesses, and prepared findings and conclusions that served as the basis of settlement; and has conducted ad hoc arbitrations as well as arbitrations under CPR, AAA, and ICDR rules. Over a several year period, John also successfully facilitated the resolution of in excess of 2,000 claims against potentially responsible parties in connection with two used oil Superfund sites in Florida. In November 2003, John was appointed to serve as the special master to oversee the implementation and enforcement of the 1992 Consent Decree (S.D. Fla.) between the United States and the state of Florida relating to the multibillion-dollar restoration of the Florida Everglades, and was asked by Kenneth Feinberg to assist his office in mediating post-hurricane insurer disputes in Florida. John also consults with major corporations on the evaluation of legal strategy and litigation risk in a variety of substantive areas of law and on implementation of records management protocols in both a litigation and nonlitigation context.