About
Advocacy in the courtroom, and outside of it.
Illustrative photograph.
- Undergraduate
- B.S., Criminal Justice Administration, California State University San Jose
- Law school
- Juris Doctor, San Francisco Law School
- Admitted
- State Bar of California, 1984
As an attorney and counselor helping clients with family law, civil, and criminal matters, I work hard to advocate for my clients’ needs, both in the courtroom and outside of it.
Most cases and legal disputes are handled without ever getting near the courthouse, so in addition to being a litigator, I am also frequently called to serve as a negotiator, arbitrator or mediator, depending on the situation at hand.
I do my best to encourage finding solutions that both sides can live with, but sometimes litigation is required. When a case does require litigation, I advocate tirelessly for my clients’ rights.
I attended California State University San Jose. There I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice Administration. I then went on to earn a Juris Doctor degree from San Francisco Law School and I was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1984.
Approach to Practicing Law
My Practice
This is where I am supposed to put my “mission statement”, but “mission statement” is such an odd term. It makes one sound like an astronaut going to the moon. So, let me just say, first, I’m going to say WHAT I do. Then I am going say HOW I do it.
What I Do
I am what is frequently called a trial lawyer. That, however, fails to tell the whole story. True, I am very proficient at being an advocate for clients in trials. When I do so, I am a trial lawyer and have been for 40 years. Yet, over 90% of all cases resolve without a trial. So, let’s try litigator, as I handle cases which have been filed with the court. Many of those, however, are settled by negotiation. For that matter, many disputes that come through my door are resolved without filing lawsuits. The opposing lawyer and I may resolve it without even getting close to a courthouse. Thus, for a large amount of my time I would be termed a negotiator. Then there are times, all sides of a dispute may come to me to arbitrate or mediate their matter. Then I am an arbitrator or mediator. Nomenclature aside, suffice to say, I am a lawyer. This encompasses all these skills.
How I Do It
When I first became a lawyer, lay persons would ask me in what area of law I was going to practice? Obviously, I chose litigation in a big way. The very experienced lawyers, however, never asked that. They asked: “What is your style of practice going to be?” Being somewhat stumped, I’d answer: “I am going to be a litigator.” The old timers would just say: “Never mind, you’ll find out,” or some such nebulous phrase.
This kept me wondering about “style of practice.” Nobody in law school ever mentioned “style of practice.” It wasn’t on the bar exam. Was it some esoteric secret of the legal profession? Was it just something used by the experienced lawyers to mess with the minds of neophytes? Great, I thought, years of torture in law school, I had wrestled with that big gorilla the bar exam, and now I must deal with the Zen of law – “style of practice.”
Then I had an epiphany while I was reading a book about Abraham Lincoln and his “style of practice.” If the law in America is God, then the lawyers are its priests and a great prophet Abraham Lincoln was speaking to me…epiphany! That is, I had found my “style of practice”:
“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
Content from the office’s published website (/about/).