Beginning in about 1985 and continuing until he took the bench, Judge Seng’s practice focused on the defense of attorneys (for California’s largest attorney malpractice carrier), Certified Public Accountants (for the nation’s biggest accountant defense insurer), and banking professionals (for, among others, two of the nation’s largest banks). As such he developed experience in the standards of care imposed upon such professionals as well as in accounting and UCC/banking laws and rules. Significantly, the “case-within-a-case” element of the malpractice actions forced him to gain substantive knowledge of the multiple specialties of the professionals he was defending—covering a range from domestic relations to toxic tort litigation and including FASB Accountancy Standards, lender liability law, and more. Then, in the latter part of his practice years with a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Trustee partner, Judge Seng was exposed to bankruptcy preference issues, fraudulent conveyances, and ERISA issues.

Judge Seng’s professional malpractice defense segued over into teaching Professional Responsibility at San Joaquin College of Law, chairing the Fresno County Bar Association Client’s Relation Committee, serving as a State Bar Probation Monitor, and being appointed Special Deputy Trial Counsel for the California State Bar Court. He also has published numerous articles and taught several CLE courses on attorney ethics and malpractice avoidance.

While in private practice, Judge Seng also received training and served as Judge Pro Tempore with the Fresno County Superior Court, presiding over some seventy arbitrations and settlement conferences/mediations.

In 2010, Judge Seng was appointed a Federal Administrative Law Judge and commenced to manage and preside over approximately 1000 cases involving appeals of disability and other claims under the Social Security Act.

In 2010, the judges of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, selected Judge Seng to serve an eight-year term as U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of California. Yosemite National Park was his primary courtroom. In that position, Judge Seng not only presided over all criminal cases originating in Yosemite National Park (to include facing several First and Fourth Amendment issues for the first time since law school), but also over a proportionate share of the full range of civil cases originating in the Fresno federal court. Because the Eastern District was one of the busiest courts in the nation and understaffed by District Court Judges, Magistrate Judges including Judge Seng were given wide duties and regularly received consent to act as District Court Judges in civil cases. Consequently, Judge Seng tried some thirty-five cases to judgement/verdict during his eight-year term. His duties of course also included presiding over innumerable discovery and other disputes and settlement conferences.

Unwilling at age 70 to commit to another eight-year term as Magistrate Judge, Judge Seng retired in the Spring of 2018, embarked on a cross-country, Pacific to Atlantic, bicycle trip, published a (not-very-good) book, Between, about the journey, came home, attended to long-neglected home projects . . . and then grew bored. Genuinely missing the challenges and intellectual stimulation enjoyed on the bench, he became in 2001, an American Arbitration Association Arbitrator and Mediator and began “Seng Alternative Dispute Resolution” offering arbitration and related services in areas in which he had had specific case experience over his 40 plus year legal career, to include:

In addition to his private ADR practice and his work for the American Arbitration Association, Judge Seng has become an approved arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), National Arbitration and Mediation (NAAM), and New Era ADR.

Judge Seng welcomes the opportunity to discuss creative alternative dispute resolution services with you.