Rebecca Callahan

R​ebecca Callahan, Esq. is a full-time attorney neutral working in the fields of international and commercial arbitration and mediation. She is a member of the large complex case panel of the American Arbitration Association as both an arbitrator and master level mediator. She is also a member arbitration and mediation panels of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (the ICDR branch of the AAA). Rebecca is known for her advance preparation, creative thinking, high energy, and collaborative style, as well as her ability to break through the noise in contentious disputes and bring difficult disputes to a close in an efficient, economic, thoughtful and fair manner.

Rebecca has 20+ years of experience as a business litigator. Her practice was largely in the Chapter 11 / reorganization space where her cases frequently included

  • litigated disputes with lenders, landlords, insurers, investors, and the like from both the debtor and creditor perspectives,

  • prosecution and defense of nondischargeability cases for fraud or defalcation, and

  • the valuation, title and/or disposition of real property. Some case digests are available on this website.

For a 5 year period during her litigation practice, Rebecca represented a hospital in several provider / payor disputes, including the liquidation of the hospital’s 7-figure claim in the MedPartners bankruptcy.

For the last 5 years of her litigation practice – before becoming a full-time neutral – Rebecca successfully represented an elder (“mom”) in litigation against her eldest son to trace and reclaim title to her $20 million real estate portfolio. Rebecca then successfully represented the youngest son (after mom died) in defending the eldest son’s challenge to mom’s will and trust, which disinherited the eldest son.

Through her arbitration and mediation practice, Rebecca’s experience has been EXPANDED to include the following:

  • Intra-partner / intra-member disputes seeking dissolution, accounting, and/or expulsion for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, defalcation, and/or conversion of assets. Some of these cases have involved family partnerships that operated manufacturing businesses or commercial real properties.

  • Rights and remedies flowing from stock or asset purchase transactions when the transaction fails or does not conform to what was represented or planned.

  • Breach of contract in the context of distributorship and independent sales representative agreements.

  • Cryptocurrency disputes including such matters as

  • the purchase and development of real property to be used as a bitcoin mining operation;

  • the design and manufacture of specialized ASIC chips for use in bitcoin mining computers; and

  • the transfer and exchange of bitcoin currency between custodial and non-custodial wallets.

  • Franchisor / Franchisee disputes including such matters as

  • franchisors terminating the franchisee “for cause” and seeking liquidated damages and injunctive relief; and

  • franchisees seeking to unwind the franchise agreement based upon problems with the franchise disclosure document and/or franchisor performance issues re franchisee support or the alleged lack thereof.

  • Healthcare arbitrations including such matters as

  • disputes over whether services were medically necessary or compensated at the proper rate;

  • termination of a pharmacy’s network contract for failure to disclose the pharmacy’s true owner; and

  • disputes between the buyer and seller after the proposed purchase and sale of a Medicare Advantage plan failed.

  • Intellectual property disputes including such matters as

  • claims of patent infringement through alleged reverse engineering and the companion claim invalidity defense, and

  • breach of exclusive license agreement for alleged failure to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop, promote and sell the licensed products.

  • Probate / Wills and Trusts mediations involving disputes

  • between beneficiaries or

  • between the trustee and one or more beneficiaries of a trust.

R​​ebecca has been an adjunct professor, skills trainer and presenter for over 20 years. She has been an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of Law since 2010, where she has taught arbitration theory and practice and mediation. She has been on the faculty of the American Arbitration Association since 2011, where she has taught numerous professional skills training courses in arbitration and mediation, including the Arbitrator Level 1 course for new AAA Panel arbitrators.

Over the years, Rebecca has participated in numerous continuing education conferences as both a presenter and student. Most recently, Rebecca was accepted into the ICC Advanced Arbitration Academy / Asia dedicated to the study of international arbitration before the ICC Court, including mastery of the ICC and UNCITRAL Rules. The training is being conducted between December 2025 and October 2026 in four, two-day workshops venued in Jakarta, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Rebecca is available globally for in-person assignments,

AND

is able to host using video conferencing or hybrid sessions.

Current CV and Case Summaries

Arbitration CV

June 2025

Mediation CV

June 2025

Case Summaries

April 2025