Experience
The partners of the Practice Group have diverse and substantial trial experience in complex litigation matters. Members belong to various professional organizations such as the American Board of Trial Advocates, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and the Association of Defense Counsel. Several partners are also panel arbitrators for the American Arbitration Association. This level of experience naturally lends itself to the complex litigation where experience and large scale resources are at a premium. When client conflicts cannot be resolved, our attorneys have trial expertise in a wide variety of complex litigation practice areas, including:

• Agriculture and Water Law
• Antitrust and other business practices including violations of California’s Business & Professions Code
• Arbitration and mediation
• Automobile
• Banking and lender liability
• Bankruptcy litigation
• Business torts, including unfair competition, fraud and interference with contracts and economic advantage
• Business, partnership and corporate dissolutions
• Civil Rights
• Commercial and residential unlawful detainer actions
• Commercial creditors’ remedies, debtors’ rights and debt collection
• Complex personal injury
• Constitutional law
• Construction accident
• Construction defect
• Contractual disputes
• Defamation
• Distributorship, franchising and licensing litigation
• Environmental
• ERISA litigation
• Escrow and title insurance litigation
• Food safety
• Governmental liability
• Health care litigation
• Intellectual property disputes, including patent, trademark, copyright and trade secrets litigation
• Medical and legal malpractice
• Premises liability
• Premises security
• Products liability
• Propane gas
• Real property, land use and condemnation litigation
• Securities and RICO litigation
• Subrogation
• Toxic tort
• Trucking litigation
• Uninsured/underinsured motorist arbitration
• Wrongful Death

Representative Clients
Our clients include major national and international corporations, owners of small to mid-size businesses, construction companies, contractors, commercial landlords, financial institutions, high technology companies, liability and title insurance companies, real estate developers, chemical and petroleum companies, public entities, farming companies and packing houses and individuals who need to initiate or be defended in litigation matters. Clients include California State Automobile Association; American International Group (AIG); Zurich American; Aetna Life and Casualty Insurance Co.; Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co.; Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co.; Industrial Indemnity; Insurance Company of the West; Kemper Insurance Group; Northland Insurance Co.; Oregon Mutual Insurance Co.; Republic Insurance Co.; The Travelers Insurance Co.; County of Fresno; U-Haul International Corporation; Save Mart Supermarkets, Inc.; Mercury Insurance Co.; National American Insurance Company of California (NAICC); GEICO; Great West Casualty; 21st Century Ins Co.; Sequoia Insurance; LMI/Highlands Insurance; McDonald’s Corp.; American Building Maintenance; Genuine Auto Parts; Carl Karcher Enterprises, Inc.; Acceptance Insurance Co.; Southland Corporation; California Dairies, Inc.; Fresno Unified School District; Clovis Unified School District; and, Self-Insured Schools of California (SISC).

Geographic Reach
The Practice Group has an active federal and state practice. Complex personal injury litigation has been a primary staple of the Group’s work in venues including the Counties of Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mariposa and Stanislaus. Fresno’s prime Central California location has allowed the Group to effectively and economically practice within a geographic reach extending to Kern County to the south, to San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties to the west, Mono and Inyo Counties to the east and San Joaquin County, Tuolumne County and Sacramento County to the north. We handle matters in the United States District Court in Fresno and Sacramento, as well as in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Additionally, the Practice Group has represented clients in appeals in the Court of Appeals in various state venues and in the Supreme Court of the State of California as well as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Practice Group includes those admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.