Montecito is home
Rock grew up in Montecito and graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1988. After thirty years away, he returned in the summer of 2020 with his wife Jan and their two children.
He can usually be found running or cycling somewhere between Mountain Drive and Cabrillo Boulevard, or making his way through the restaurants Montecito has to offer.
Military service
Rock served as a Judge Advocate General officer in the United States Air Force. His career spanned operational and international law, military justice, and employment law.
He was one of the architects of the Air Force's Alternative Dispute Resolution program, which received the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's award for Best Federal ADR Program, and he authored its foundational text, the Compendium for Mediating Civilian Workplace Disputes. That work shaped how federal agencies across government resolve workplace disputes.
Seriously injured in the line of duty, he was medically retired in 2009.
After the injury
In 2006, Rock awoke from surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center partially paralyzed from his left hip to his foot, and was told he would never walk again. Dozens of procedures and years of physical therapy later, he walked down the aisle at his wedding to Jan in 2010. During their honeymoon in Santa Barbara, he resolved to run again — starting with a quarter mile and building to a marathon. Ten years after the paralysis, Rock finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 2016, and has run four more since.
Three decades of resolving disputes
Rock has practiced law for more than thirty years in employment law, federal practice, and workplace dispute resolution. He has been a certified mediator for over thirty-two years and has mediated more than 5,000 cases.
He has argued from both sides — as plaintiff's counsel and as employer's counsel in high-stakes employment disputes — and has served as both a major felony prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney. His record includes 165 trials and over 50 proceedings before the federal courts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Thirty years of sitting between opposing parties teaches a particular discipline: get the facts first, understand every position on the table, and decide on the merits rather than on who argued loudest.
Building a business
Rock is the founder and president of Rock Solid Options, doing business as The Resolution Group — a firm providing equal employment opportunity (EEO) program management, workplace investigations, employment law training, and consulting to federal agencies and private sector clients. Its clients have included Fortune 500 companies and a wide range of federal agencies.
He lectures frequently on labor and employment law and alternative dispute resolution, and has taught at the Air Force and Army JAG Schools, the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, and The George Washington University Law School.
Serving the community
- Montecito Sanitary DistrictDirector since July 2025. Board President since December 2025.
- Montecito AssociationActive member.
- El Escorial Homeowners AssociationPresident.
Good governance is a method, not a slogan: establish the facts, analyze the alternatives, define who is responsible for what, and account for the results.