Jules G. Radcliff

A business, government, and trial lawyer experienced in counseling directors, officers, and senior government officials, specialized in crafting solutions to complex business challenges, often where government plays a role in regulation, contracting, or enforcement. In addition to negotiating and documenting transactions common to most businesses, he has also conducted complex factual and financial forensic investigations and managed high-stakes, multi-jurisdiction litigation. As special counsel to boards of directors, he has assisted boards in properly discharging fiduciary duties both as to enterprise risks and as to corporate governance. He has extensive experience with the regulation of insurance and with all forms of insurance coverage, as well as with risk retention and risk purchasing groups, and served as national coordinating counsel for major D&O insurers coordinating and overseeing the response to, and management of, multiple waves of class action litigation aimed at savings & loan institutions, high-tech companies, and other targeted segments of the national business community.

His clients have included well-known companies in national and international commerce, finance, insurance, technology, radio and television broadcast, entertainment, manufacturing, real estate, energy, and health care, as well as both domestic (U.S.) and foreign governments. He has represented numerous clients in matters before the U.S. Congress involving major, national investigations and related hearings, and he has successfully managed the passage of multiple, new laws through state legislatures, including the California legislature, as well as the amendment or adoption of new regulations in matters of importance to the business community.

LITIGATION EXPERIENCE.
Trial-related experience includes over 100 bench and jury trials in state and federal courts, as well as in state and federal administrative proceedings before a diverse range of state and federal regulatory agencies. He has also served as national coordinating counsel for major insurers, overseeing national and local law firms across the U.S. and developing strategies for defending against class action lawsuits targeting directors & officers of Fortune 500 companies in the context of rapidly evolving liability standards in multiple fields, including technology companies, financial institutions, the secondary mortgage market, and others.

CORPORATE AND BUSINESS COUNSELING.
A general corporate practitioner, his litigation background and steady hand in negotiations has made him the go-to lawyer for all manner of transactions, from the complex and difficult, to the everyday and common. He has formed companies, drafted and overseen the execution of foundational documents, including bylaws, corporate resolutions, and employment contracts with senior executives, and assisted in licensing and regulatory compliance matters. In the business-to-business and the business-to-government contexts, he has guided negotiations and drafted agreements in both forming and unwinding joint ventures, partnering agreements, multi-stage commercial agreements, and multi-party public-private ventures between government entities and both commercial businesses and nonprofit organizations.

GOVERNMENT-RELATED COUNSELING.
His government experience includes serving in numerous consulting roles in local, state, federal, and international matters, representing private-sector clients as well as domestic and foreign governments. He has represented clients before committees of the Congress and before federal agencies, as well as before committees of state legislatures and state and local agencies, on diverse matters, including preparing witnesses to testify on pending legislation, negotiating outcomes on proposed bills, and in shaping agency regulations. His work internationally on behalf of both major businesses and foreign governments has also included negotiating market access, developing mutual trade opportunities, and counseling in connection with compliance under FCPA, ITAR, Denied Persons, Anti-Boycott, and related U.S. laws and restrictions impacting international transactions. Experience also includes forming coalitions to support or oppose government action, often creating the foundation for new, permanent trade associations working effectively with government regulators.

INSURANCE EXPERTISE.
Woven through his career has been counseling in all aspects of insurance and the insurance industry. His expertise includes negotiating changes in regulations and regulatory practices by departments of insurance, as well as representing major insurers, brokers, and agents in administrative enforcement proceedings. He has formed and counseled federal risk retention and risk purchasing groups on behalf of a wide range of businesses and nonprofit organizations, and has formed, and provided day-to-day counseling to, claims handling companies. He has strong expertise in interpreting and litigating coverage and bad faith disputes on behalf of insurers under a wide range of professional, general liability, business interruption, and director & officer policies, as well as in advising on the coverage obligations of primary, excess, and umbrella carriers. His clients have also included both governmental and private sector insureds, from matters where they have been improperly denied coverage, particularly in complex, high-value litigation, to negotiations with insurers for improved coverage of emerging risks, as well as in the design and establishment of effective risk management strategies in emerging-risk contexts.

ENTREPRENEURIAL EXPERIENCE.
Entrepreneurial activities in support of client goals have included forming and managing, or co-managing, multiple businesses, including the following highlights. Domestically—J3 Group LLC, handling media, messaging, and image-management for high-profile businesses and individuals in crisis-management contexts; Wilshire Economic Services LLC, providing forensic accounting and damage analysis services to large insurance groups in connection with director & officer liability policies in the context of major-exposure class action lawsuits across the U.S.; Breach Assurance LLC, providing senior business and government leaders with the tools to manage the cybersecurity risk; Golden State Advocates LLC, providing government relations and registered lobbying services before state governments and the Congress; RegLex LLC, providing deep due diligence and forensic financial investigation services; and over two dozen industry-specific, region-specific, new trade associations across the U.S. formed to negotiate with state and federal regulators on the way EPA and state agency stormwater regulations are implemented and enforced. Internationally—Accesso Europa Centrale, handling government relations on behalf of U.S. companies in Italy, Greece, Central Europe, and the Balkans; European Broadcasting Co., negotiating access on behalf of U.S. broadcasters and entertainment companies to broadcast outlets in Eastern Europe, the Newly Independent States, and Russia; and America’s Secret, opening market access channels to U.S. clothing manufacturers in Greece, and in Central and Eastern Europe.

GOVERNMENTAL SERVICE.
He has had a parallel career in government service and political consulting. In government he has served in multiple roles and capacities, from Chief of Staff to a California Lt. Governor, to numerous appointments as a member of commissions overseeing municipal and state departments, to serving as the primary liaison between the senior elected appointing authority and the appointed commissioners serving on the boards of various agencies. His experience with government has been diverse, from overseeing, developing, or managing multiple government projects, including divestment from South Africa-related securities and the evolution of prudent, non-traditional investing criteria for public pension funds, to acting as liaison with, and providing assistance to, a major labor organization under federal order to remove organized crime individuals and influences from its operations. He has also served in significant roles with high-profile and diverse public-private commissions and advisory boards, frequently consulting as Special Counsel in sensitive matters while assisting in resolving challenging problems. Internationally, he has served as an interim Business Investment Advisor, Office of U.N. High Commissioner, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as Legal Advisor and Intermediary between the U.S. Justice/State Departments and the national government of an Eastern European country.

POLITICAL CAMPAIGN ROLES AND CONSULTING.
He was among the first experts in state and federal campaign finance law and the related requirements of economic disclosure and avoidance of conflicts of interest in the post-Watergate era. In addition to speaking to many business, professional, and political organizations on the new and evolving rules, he also consulted on compliance issues with major political leaders in the White House, the Congress, state governors’ offices and legislatures, as well as with elected municipal leaders from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, to Atlanta, to Sacramento and Los Angeles, as well as other major centers of political fundraising, and with nationally-prominent leaders of both major political party national committees. In politics he has served as General Counsel, Manager, and Chairman or Co-Chairman, of many local, state, and federal political campaigns across the U.S., including mayoral, county, gubernatorial and other statewide offices, congressional, and presidential campaigns.

PUBLICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES.
Contributing Editor, International Court of Justice Opinion Briefs, ABA Project, 1975-1976. Author sub nom Jun Mori, “Doing Business with the Japanese,” ABA Journal, Spring 1976. Participating Panelist, Moderator, and Speaker, CEB seminars, “The Corporation in Politics,” “Election Campaign Finance Reform,” “Professional Liability,” “Insurance Coverage and Practice,” “Primary, Excess, and Reinsurance,” “Developments in Insurance Bad Faith,” “Reverse Bad Faith,” and related topics, 1976-1981. Speaker, UCLA Lecture Series, “Election Campaigns and the Media,” 1983-1986. Lecturer on professional standards, insurance coverage and bad faith, and compliance with California’s Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations, including certification of claims adjusters, 1984—. Moderator, “Blockchain and Cybersecurity: 21st Century Challenges and Opportunities,” VerdeXchange Conference, Los Angeles, 2019.