Hon. Socrates Peter Manoukian (Ret.)

Hon. Socrates Peter Manoukian (Ret.) joins Signature Resolution from the Santa Clara County Superior Court, where in 33 years of judicial tenure, he presided across every civil assignment the court offers, from medical malpractice and business disputes to trust and probate, family law, real property, employment, and insurance matters. He arrived at the bench with a seasoned civil litigation practice behind him, one built on insurance defense work that gave him a granular understanding of how institutions assess and absorb risk. That dual foundation, as advocate and adjudicator, is what he brings to the mediation table: a practitioner’s command of how disputes develop and harden, and a judge’s clear-eyed account of where they end up if they don’t resolve.

Judge Manoukian’s approach always begins with deep listening, making space for parties to speak fully and without direction. He gives parties direct, unstructured time to say what they are carrying, understanding that what surfaces in those unguarded moments often holds the key to movement that attorney-to-attorney exchange has not produced. He is warm, unhurried, and deliberate about making every person in the room feel genuinely seen, a practice he traces to a conviction he has held since long before the bench: that the legal system exists to serve people, not the other way around. When a mediation stalls, he names the impasse plainly, including the prospect of trial, while keeping the door open for parties to return. He is as attentive to what breaks a negotiation as to what builds one, and he treats each breakdown as a problem to understand before it becomes one to solve.

Judge Manoukian began his legal career in Los Angeles as a civil litigator specializing in insurance defense and medical malpractice at Early, Maslach, Leavey & Nutt, which served as house counsel for Farmers Insurance Group. He later moved to San Jose, joining the Law Offices of Burton K. Wines before co-founding Wines & Manoukian. He was admitted to the American Board of Trial Advocates in 1993 and appointed to the Santa Clara County Superior Court that same year by Governor Pete Wilson. Over more than three decades on the bench, he served in assignments spanning criminal trials, juvenile delinquency, the Appellate Department, civil and criminal case management, civil discovery, and civil trials, while also helping found the criminal record clearance program with Santa Clara University School of Law. Across those assignments, Judge Manoukian accumulated a working familiarity with the risk profiles, procedural pressures, and human stakes that differ meaningfully across every type of civil matter.

Judge Manoukian has lived in Santa Clara County since childhood and has practiced in and presided over its courts for more than four decades. He can speak directly to how local juries think, how the legal culture has shifted over time, and what that means for parties weighing the risks of trial. At the table, that same instinct for connection shapes how he engages: he finds genuine points of connection with nearly every party and attorney in the room, and he addresses parties by name rather than by their role in the dispute, a practice he held throughout his judicial career as a matter of basic human dignity.

Now at Signature Resolution, Judge Manoukian brings every dimension of that career to bear for the parties across from him. He knows what civil litigation costs at every level, he knows this community and its courts, and he has spent more than three decades committed to helping parties find resolution before trial extracts its full toll. For attorneys navigating complex civil matters in Northern California and beyond, Judge Manoukian brings the range, authority, and genuine investment in the people at the table that resolution demands.