Forest Ranch Lawyers

Who am I? Why do I do this? What are you getting when you hire me and my staff? Am I any good at this lawyer stuff? Will I win? Those are all good questions; and I even have answers for some of them.

I started the firm in the mid 1990’s after the Savings and Loan implosion killed commercial real estate for about five years.

In 1978, I got my California real estate license, and two years later, my broker’s license. In 1993, I was awarded the nationally recognized CCIM designation by the Commercial Investment...

Bryan Kemnitzer is a partner at Kemnitzer, Barron, and Krieg, LLP. He received a B.A. from Stanford University in 1972 and a J.D. from McGeorge School of Law (University of the Pacific) in 1975. Bryan was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1975. He has been a civil litigator for more than 30 years and has tried numerous jury cases to judgment. He has served as an arbitrator, and as a Judge-Pro-Tem.

For more than 30 years, his practice has been focused on representing consumers, with an emphasis on the auto industry. Bryan has been involved not only in...

Ernest C. Brown, ESQ, PE is highly experienced in construction contracts, negotiation, claims preparation, construction litigation, mechanic’s liens, bid protests, public works law and insurance coverage. He has resolved more than 2,500 construction disputes, including complex mediations, arbitrations, litigation, court trials, jury trials, DRB's and other innovative ADR approaches. He is a graduate of MIT in Civil and Environmental Engineering and earned a MS Construction Management and JD from the University of California, Berkeley. He also did graduate coursework at Harvard Law School in International Law. He is a senior construction lawyer and licensed civil engineer. Mr. Brown has...

For over 30 years, Mr. Sparer has successfully represented individuals and businesses in litigation involving securities, contract, insurance, real estate, probate, and trust matters. Sparer Law Group (SLG), Mr. Sparer has obtained over $200 million in settlements, judgments, and recoveries on behalf of securities investors. Mr. Sparer also leads an SLG team that has successfully defended financial professionals and investment funds under investigation by the SEC, FINRA, and the California Department of Business Oversight.

SLG regularly helps resolve sensitive and confidential family disputes involving claims of elder abuse or financial misconduct. In the process, Mr. Sparer has successfully...

The Law Offices of Lucy S. McAllister is a California-based administrative law, licensing law and criminal law practice providing legal services for clients in California. Attorney McAllister has successfully won over 250 Superior Court trials as a Defense Attorney.With 30+ years experience as a civil and criminal attorney.

She specializes in the following areas of law:

Licensing Law :
Pre-hearing resolution of licensing issues, Administrative Hearings, Administrative Appeals, License Applications, Legal Advice, Handling License Criminal Disclosures (Applications, Renewals, Reinstatements), criminal record expungement.

Criminal Law:
Restraining orders, DUI charges and convictions, Domestic Violence, Sex Charges, Strikes Charges, Assault and Battery, Theft and Fraud,...

Erik Christensen litigates, and provides counsel on, corporate and employment issues in California and the District of Columbia. His experience includes working as a senior associate at top-ranked global law firms, including Littler Mendelson and Greenberg Traurig. Before this, Erik externed at the California Supreme Court and the First District Court of Appeal, two of the most prestigious opportunities provided to law students in California. Erik also served as a law clerk for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Victim Impact Program (sometimes referred to as the “Special Victims Unit.”) His experience includes years of service with the 101st Airborne’s...

Gene Takagi is the managing attorney of NEO Law Group, contributing publisher of the Nonprofit Law Blog, and a part-time lecturer at Columbia University. At NEO, Gene has represented over 800 nonprofit organizations on corporate, tax, and charitable trust law matters. Gene is a popular writer on nonprofit legal topics and has been published by The New York Times, The Nonprofit Quarterly, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Nonprofit Times, Taxation of Exempts, EO Tax Journal, and ALI-ABA. He is also a popular speaker who has presented at conferences for Independent Sector, BoardSource, NAAG/National Association of State Charity Officials, CalNonprofits, the...

Ella Zheng is the Managing Partner of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight’s Palo Alto and San Francisco offices and Chair of the firm’s Asian American Litigation and Finance Practice Group. In 2022, she was recognized as a Rising Star by Law360 and named an “Asian Leader Worth Watching” by Profiles in Diversity Journal. She has earned a spot on Super Lawyers’ Northern California Rising Stars list every year since 2016 and was named among the Top 40 Under 40 Civil Plaintiff Trial Lawyers in California by The National Trial Lawyers. In 2018, Ella was honored with the Tribute to Women Award...

Attorney John Martin advises individuals, families, and businesses in the areas of legacy planning, wealth preservation, estate & business succession planning, and estate administration. Our law firm focuses exclusively on legacy planning, wealth preservation, estate and business succession planning, and estate administration. Our trust and estate planning services enable clients to protect their spouse's or child's s inheritance from creditors and predators, maximize control over their assets during their lifetime, benefit charities, and effectively transition their business to the next generation. Through an ongoing client maintenance program, we provide peace of mind that a client's goals will not...

Laura received her undergraduate degree in 2003 from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, graduating Summa Cum Laude and with distinction in her major (English). After graduation, Laura went on to work as a paralegal at Latham & Watkins, LLP, in their Silicon Valley offices and later attended U.C. Hastings College of the Law, graduating with her J.D. in 2008. While at Hastings, Laura was the Executive Articles Editor of the Hastings Women's Law Journal and recipient of the Roger J. Traynor Student Writing Competition Award for her Note "On the Steps of the Mosque: the Legal Rights of Non-Marital Children...

Hasan Abdullah was born in Toronto, Canada, and has been living in the United States since 2000. He received his Juris Doctorate (JD) degree from Santa Clara University (SCU) School of Law, and has held membership in the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) since 2008.

In 2005, while studying at SCU, he interned at their community law center and focused on family-based immigration, VAWA petitions, political asylum, and criminal victim (U-Visa) cases.

Since 2008, he joined a full-service immigration law firm for nearly seven years, and was quickly promoted to manage and train the staff of attorneys and paralegals. While practicing he...

Mr. Batchelder is certified by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California, as a Specialist in Workers Compensation Law. For more than a decade, he has frequently served as a Workers Compensation Judge Pro Tem. He has served as a member of the Education Committee of the California Applicants Attorneys Association, putting together educational programs in workers compensation law for California attorneys.

He was admitted to the California Bar in December 1976, and is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and...

Alex Megeredchian is the founder and president of Megeredchian Law, a rapidly growing California law firm. At the age of 18, Alex litigated his own disputed liability auto accident case and won. His passion for the American judicial system drove him to earn his law degree from Loyola Law School and gain admittance to the state bar. Shortly thereafter, Alex founded Megeredchian Law, where he helps injured California accident victims earn just compensation.

Megeredchian Law strives to offer exceptional client service. You can call and speak to your personal injury attorney 24/7, 365 days of the year. You'll be provided...

Your freedom is the most important thing you have. You owe it to yourself and your family to have the best possible defense, and the most experienced lawyer defending you. Douglas Maner is a Criminal Law Expert, with over thirty years of experience and over one hundred jury trials to verdict.

Mahal is a family law attorney based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She began her practice in 2014, having spent the previous fourteen years as a law clerk, educator, and paralegal specialist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Her law practice integrates her passion for civil rights and her love for community. Mahal was born in Vallejo, and after a series of family tragedies enrolled herself in the tenth grade at Oakland Technical High School. She was legally emancipated as a minor the following spring. These childhood experiences inspired her to become an attorney and...

Ms. Madueña is an expert immigration lawyer in the Bay Area handling a wide range of immigration matters, including complex cases with criminal issues. The bulk of her practice focuses on family-based immigration and removal defense. She has successfully argued for the release of clients in immigration detention, and has obtained Adjustment of Status, Asylum, and Cancellation of Removal for her clients against the government in Immigration Court. Ms. Madueña has also obtained Lawful Permanent Residency, Asylum, Naturalization, NACARA, and Waivers before the immigration office. Notably, when she was a first-year associate, Ms. Madueña presented a complex criminal and...

Heidi Machen has been an attorney since 1996 when she graduated from University of California Hastings College of the Law and passed the California Bar Exam. Prior to hanging her shingle as a sole practitioner in 2008, representing clients in matters of employment and regulatory law, Ms. Machen served in various policy and executive positions in local and Bay Area government.

Among her extracurricular activities, she is an avid cyclist, a Vegan cook, an amateur oil painter, has been known to contribute to theatrical productions on or off stage, and to participate in Democratic party doings. She...

Former prosecutor. Experienced criminal, DUI, and juvenile defense attorney across California from North to South. Marc also represents people in Restraining Order cases.

James H. (Jim) Gulseth was born and attended high school in Devils Lake, North Dakota and graduated with an A.B. degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Jim earned his JD degree at the University of California Hastings School of Law in San Francisco and is admitted to practice in the State of California and before the Federal District Court, Northern District of California, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. He is a member of the Corporations, Business Transactions, Securities and Tax and Intellectual Property Sections of the State Bar of California. Jim’s reported cases include...

Representing injured workers exclusively since 1995.

Mr. Kronenberg's practice focuses on: - Catastrophic Injury: including representing people who consumed food allergens or pathogens, as well as workers who used defectively designed or manufactured food processing equipment, victims of traumatic brain injury, spinal cord trauma, nerve damage, and severe orthopedic injuries arising from construction accidents, industrial accidents, dangerous premises, auto accidents, wrongful death, governmental or public entity liability, and professional negligence. Mr. Kronenberg has more than a decade of experience litigating personal injury and product liability cases from their inception through trial and appeal. - Consumer Protection: litigating class action claims arising from...

As an attorney and financier with over three decades of experience, I have been advising companies on various aspects of real estate transactions. My work includes forming legal entities, establishing joint ventures, handling property acquisitions and sales, conducting due diligence, managing land use planning and entitlements, ensuring environmental compliance, and dealing with both secured and unsecured financing. Additionally, I am well-versed in construction contracts, litigation, and arbitration. I am transaction-oriented and have significant experience in handling a broad spectrum of commercial contracts. My skills include reviewing, drafting, and negotiating joint venture agreements, development agreements, construction contracts, public utility agreements, vendor agreements,...

For over twenty years I have focused my entire legal practice on exclusively representing employees in a wide variety of employment matters, including wrongful terminations, unpaid wages, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, defamation and severance negotiations. I handle all lawsuits on a contingency fee basis, meaning that I do not charge a fee in a litigation if I do not secure a recovery on behalf of my client. I have advocated on behalf of several hundred employees in State and Federal Court and have completed nearly twenty trials.

As an experienced General Counsel with two stints at late-stage growth companies, Ronak Ray leads all legal matters for maturing businesses. He supported TaskUs’ board as corporate secretary and 18,000 people globally while managing to close a $500 million transaction with Blackstone before joining another scaling technology company at Pantheon as their General Counsel. Most recently, Ronak was appointed as Executive Managing Director of modCounsel to support growth companies for concierge in-house legal services from early stage to publicly listed businesses.

Jon Welner is a leading practitioner of environmental law in California. His broad and deep experience over twenty years enables him to solve regulatory problems for clients in virtually every area of environmental practice, including air, water, hazardous materials, hazardous waste, consumer products, traditional and renewable energy, and natural resources. Jon helps clients make sense of the “alphabet soup” of state and federal environmental regulatory agencies in order to achieve their business objectives. He regularly represents clients in court to defend their interests and achieve their goals.

Jon has a robust land use practice and assists clients to successfully navigate the...

Janet L. Brewer is the principal of the Law Office of Janet L. Brewer, which has its headquarters in Los Altos, California. Janet serves clients throughout the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. She is certified by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization as an estate planning and probate specialist – one of fewer than 100 practicing in Santa Clara County and fewer than 1,100 practicing in California (out of over 250,000 lawyers statewide). Janet has deep experience with complex estate planning situations. In her international estate planning practice, she helps non-resident aliens, visa holders, “green card” holders and other international...

Kelsey A. Webber is an experienced labor and employment attorney who has litigated a broad range of matters through arbitration and trial. Mr. Webber attended Georgetown University Law Center where he was on the Dean’s Honor Roll. After graduating from Georgetown Law, Mr. Webber began practicing employment law, representing employees, in Roseville, California. During that time, Mr. Webber was on a trial team that obtained a $4,750,000 verdict for a client in an age discrimination case. Mr. Webber also obtained numerous mid to high six figure settlements on behalf of his clients. Thereafter, Mr. Webber spent the next three years representing some...

Devina Douglas has worked hard to build a reputation within the northern Bay Area as an attorney who is as easy to work with as she is knowledgeable. She has experience in all facets of criminal practice from pre-filing investigations through jury trial, including investigation, arraignments, motions, discovery, pre-trial negotiations and plea bargaining, probation violations, and post-conviction remedies. She handles various felony and misdemeanor cases involving DUI, homicides, marijuana crimes, fish and game violations, drug offenses, sex crimes, and domestic violence.

Devina attended the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO), where she earned a...

Ms. Bateman Smith is a strong and compassionate family law attorney. She is a strong advocate for her clients' rights in divorce cases involving Custody and Visitation, Child and Spousal Support, and division of community property. She also makes the survivor of domestic violence cases heard by the court. Partition actions are another area of law on which she advocates.

Twenty-six years with the Sonoma County Superior Court gives her a unique perspective in helping clients through each step of their case.

Ms. Bateman Smith is an active member of both the California Lawyers Association (CLA), Sonoma County Bar...

The Applegate Law Office focuses on efficient, effective representation. I provide my clients with exactly the help that they need. I founded the Applegate Law Office in June 2009. I have been practicing law in California since 2003, and I have spent most of those years practicing law in the North Bay. As an attorney for years in Santa Rosa and a former prosecutor in Ukiah and Willits, I am familiar with Sonoma and Mendocino County courts. My office, centrally located in Santa Rosa, serves all of the North Bay – Mendocino, Sonoma, Lake, Napa, and Marin counties.

A personal injury...

JEREMY OLSAN is the principal of Olsan Law, Inc. From 2008 until 2020 Jeremy was a partner at the Perry law firm. He practices in the areas of real estate transactions, business and non-profit entity formation, finance, and governance, mergers, acquisitions, and sales, business contracts and transactions, as well as construction transactions, commercial property leasing, mortgage and finance law, and land use law. An AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated attorney* since 2013, Jeremy has also been repeatedly recognized by his peers as a Northern California Super Lawyer®. In 2016, the California State Bar Board of Trustees appointed Jeremy to...

I want to be your attorney. My philosophy is that people have problems and my office is here to help them. We all have been there, in need of some kind of help and it really does not matter how you ended up needing help, the main thing is helping with your problem. I graduated with Honors from Golden Gate University with a BS in Accounting and Graduated 10th in my class at Lincoln Law School. Prior to going to Law School, I started working for a landscaping company in high school, and a roofing company after graduation. I joined...

Michael A. Hackard. Michael A. Hackard is the principal attorney of Hackard Law Corporation - a Sacramento, California firm which represents wealthy families with extensive business interests as well as clients impoverished by the wrongdoing of others. Michael and his attorneys are dedicated to clients.

Hackard Law attorneys focus on trust and estate litigation, fiduciary litigation, will contests, trust contests, elder financial abuse, trust decanting, trust beneficiary rights, trustee removal, special needs trusts, supplemental needs trusts, title to assets, family business trusts, dynasty trusts, domestic asset preservation trusts and asset protection.

Attorney William A. Kershaw is a founding partner in the law firm of Kershaw Talley Barlow in Sacramento, CA. He has over 30 years of experience serving clients nationwide in matters of complex civil litigation such as personal injury, class actions, mass torts, wage and hour disputes and breach of contract cases. He is highly effective against formidable opponents: he has won judgments totaling over $1 billion, including a $330 million class action victory against American Honda Motor Co. and an $87 million judgment against United Parcel Service in a wage dispute. He is now simultaneously serving on the...

James R. Lewis represents personal injury claimants and families of those who have suffered wrongful death. Mr. Lewis is a skilled trial attorney who handles cases through to verdict including investigation, discovery, ADR, expert discovery and trial. Clients consider Mr. Lewis knowledgeable, confident and firm in his approach. Admitted to practice in California and in several federal district courts, Mr. Lewis pursues justice for his clients in all venues. He is a member in good standing with the Sacramento and Placer County Bar Associations, the Capitol City Trial Lawyers Assoc. Mr. Lewis was selected again...

Jay Pink is an attorney who works with businesses and families on estate planning, and business law matters. Having his CPA license, and working in multiple family businesses over his career has positioned him to provide valuable insight on successful business operations. He has formed many entities - LLC's, Corps Partnerships and non-profit organizations.

David E. Mastagni is a partner with the law firm of Mastagni Holstedt, APC, who specializes in labor and employment law representation of public safety employees, including trial and appellate litigation in California and federal courts. In particular, he handles complex civil, class action and collective action litigation, claims arising out of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the U.S. and California Constitutions, the California Public Records Act (CPRA), the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights (POBR), the California Labor Code, the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, and other statutes protecting the rights of employees.
Among his other legal activities, David is an...

Michael Wise brings 30 years of criminal trial experience to the Courtroom. He has served as both a prosecutor and defense attorney. In that capacity, Mr. Wise has earned the respect of the local bench, law enforcement and prosecutors throughout northern California. Having secured several acquittals on a variety of cases, including homicide, sexual assault, rape, fraud, assault, domestic violence and others, Mr. Wise is regarded as the premier criminal defense attorney in Sacramento and Northern California. Mr. Wise is frequently invited to speak as a guest commentator on television. Likewise, he frequently teaches Advanced Officer...