Herald Lawyers

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...

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...

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...

Michael Malter is an accomplished California attorney, advocating for clients in Bankruptcy, Business, Intellectual Property, Landlord Tenant, Real Estate and Tax Law matters. With over 40 years of experience, he has been recognized as a Certified Specialist in Bankruptcy Law by the California State Bar. Michael is committed to providing comprehensive and personalized representation focused on attaining the best possible outcomes.

Michael, a native of Long Island, New York, has been a resident of California since 1977. He currently lives in Saratoga with his two daughters and labradoodles. Outside of work, Michael can be found hiking and traveling. Additionally, he deems...

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...

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...

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...

Jennifer is certified as a Family Law Specialist by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. She earned a B.A. in Law and Society from the University of California at Santa Barbara and her law degree from Santa Clara University. Jennifer is a member of the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists, and member of the Santa Clara County Bar Association and is a member of the Family Law Executive Committee of the Santa Clara County Bar Association. Jennifer has lectured at multiple seminars for the Santa Clara County Bar Association, and Santa Clara University School of Law,...

Traci is certified as a Family Law Specialist by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. She graduated from Santa Clara University in 2000 and was admitted to the bar in December of that year. During her tenure at Santa Clara, she was the Sr. Technical Editor of the Computer Technology Law Journal and received a Certificate of Excellence in Legal Research and Writing. After graduation, Traci was recruited by a top corporate law firm. She worked at Gray Cary (now DLA Piper) from 2000 - 2002 as a securities and corporate transactional attorney. She was involved in...

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...

I have over 35 years of experience in bankruptcy consulting, litigation, and related appeals. I am dedicated to exceptional representation focused on the practical, cost-effective solutions you need. Visit my website for more information and representative cases.

I have built a career and a reputation by advocating for the rights of the accused. At Bulldog Law, my team and I have defended thousands of clients throughout the United States in various criminal cases across both state and federal courts, encompassing trials and appeals. Additionally, we manage personal injury and cryptocurrency cases. My lawyers and I have been described as "bulldogs" for our tenacious and successful representation in legal proceedings. We vigorously defend our clients, fully aware of the high stakes and our potential to significantly impact their lives.

Ryan Hafey is a dedicated attorney whose career reflects a strong foundation in both academic achievement and practical legal experience, guided by a deep commitment to social justice. He began his legal career at The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, where he supported the Department of Airports’ legal team. Ryan later turned his attention to immigration law, working on complex asylum and deportation matters at a large firm in downtown San Francisco. He served clients from India, Nepal, and Central America, developing a reputation for skillful advocacy. In 2021, Ryan joined a San Leandro law firm where he continued his work on...

Mr. Rose is dedicated to providing the best legal representation for injured victims and their families in a compassionate, efficient and effective manner. He is a passionate advocate for his clients and resolves most cases in a matter of months, rather than years. He is most widely known as one of the leading bicycle lawyers, pedestrian lawyers, and motorcycle accident lawyers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Rose also serves as a Mediator of claims throughout California.

Colby Dean LaVelle II proudly manages LaVelle Law Offices with the personal attention of a boutique law firm but with the resources of larger law firms. An honored graduate of Santa Clara University of Law, Mr. LaVelle has dedicated his career to the pursuit of justice. He began his legal career working for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. Following his success litigating criminal matters, Mr. LaVelle started the LaVelle Law Offices. Now with eight locations across California, The LaVelle Law Offices is an incarnation of Mr. LaVelle's desire to serve the public, as he...

Bryan Schwartz is an Oakland, California-based attorney dedicated to helping employees protect their rights in the workplace. He has fought prohibited discrimination, retaliation, and harassment, obtained reasonable accommodations for disabled employees, vindicated whistleblowers' rights, and ensured that corporations pay workers all wages they are owed. He has successfully litigated individual and class action complaints nationwide, helping to recover millions of dollars for thousands of employees, forcing corporations and Government agencies to change their practices and punish wrongdoers. Bryan Schwartz is also one of the few Bay Area-based attorneys with extensive experience representing Federal employees in their unique Merit Systems...

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...

Representing injured workers exclusively since 1995.

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...

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...

You’ve spent your life building your wealth. And no matter how large or how modest – protecting your assets matters. Ivette Santaella understands that estate planning may seem daunting. You might feel uncomfortable talking about what happens after death. Or maybe you’re worried that you don’t understand the laws well enough. Santaella Law Group, APC is here to guide you through your concerns and make estate planning easy. Ivette has more than 30 years of experience talking her clients through their goals, translating and helping them navigate the law, and working with them to come up with a solid plan for...

As a former Deputy District Attorney and Deputy Public Defender who has litigated thousands of cases, including misdemeanors and felonies, I know how to fight for you. My background includes adult and juvenile cases, as well as serious and violent felonies and three-strikes cases.

I am also an experienced civil litigator with a corporate and white-collar litigation background at a prestigious "big law" firm who switched sides to sue corporations and other entities (including insurance companies, police departments, governments, and others) on behalf of individuals to obtain justice for my clients.

As a result, I have seen firsthand how corporations and...

J.R. Richards' practice focuses on developing long term client relationships representing their interests in both transactional matters and in civil litigation. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants primarily in real estate and business disputes and has successfully litigated cases through dispositive motion, trial and settlement in state and federal courts. J.R. prepares each case to achieve a favorable judgment by trial or before trial, and when in the best interest of the client leverages a favorable settlement. Community Involvement: * Coach/Manager for Pre-K/K softball team the Purple Puppies 2016. * Coach/Manager for the Danville...

Boris has devoted himself to a career in criminal defense and fighting for the rights of the accused—a passion that grew from his experience being erroneously arrested at age thirteen due to a misidentification. This experience left him intimately aware of the kind of anxiety and fear a criminal accusation causes in one's life. Bringing this memory to the courtroom and negotiating table alike, Boris quickly gained a reputation as a fearless and zealous advocate for his clients who fights with integrity and compassion every step of the way.

Smart & Aggressive Criminal Defense. Experienced in representing individuals accused of crimes...

Michael Hassen's litigation practice spans over 30 years and emphasizes general business and commercial litigation, including class action defense and matters involving intellectual property and unfair competition.

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...

For the past 45 years, I have dedicated my legal career to representing individuals in Northern California who have suffered catastrophic injuries. My practice areas include workers' compensation, industrial accidents, death claims, orthopedic injuries, amputations, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Andrew is a senior counsel in the Oakland/East Bay office of Ericksen Arbuthnot and co-chair of the firm's Appellate Practice Group. He is AV® Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been selected as a Northern California Super Lawyers Rising Star by Thomson Reuters. Andrew has extensive litigation experience representing individual and institutional clients in state and federal court. His areas of practice include insurance coverage and defense, intellectual property, personal injury, professional liability, real estate, and other commercial issues.

Andrew has B.A. degrees in Cognitive Science and History, and a minor in Philosophy, from the...

Paul DeAngelis practices in the San Francisco Bay Area. He concentrates on real estate matters, including litigating buyer and seller disputes arising from transactions, neighbor and HOA disputes, and broker defense issues. He also provides transaction and counseling services to buyers and sellers, to property owners to resolve neighbor and HOA disputes, and to brokers and agents regarding risk management and BRE compliance issues. The information in this profile and any reviews or endorsements do not constitute a guarantee, warranty or prediction regarding the outcome of any legal representation. It is a communication within Rules of Professional Conduct of...

Sally is now retired and living in Palm Springs. She is keeping her license active to allow her to do Pro Bono work with local Bar Associations.

California Civil Appeals, State & Federal

Myron Moskovitz served as law clerk to Justice Raymond E. Peters of the California Supreme Court. He is the author of Winning An Appeal (Carolina Academic Press, 4th ed.) and Moskovitz On Appeal (LexisNexis, 2015). He has handled and consulted on many appeals, both in state and federal courts. Although appellate courts reverse in civil cases only about 20% of the time, he has won reversals in more than 70% of his civil cases in which he represented appellants.

He is Professor of Law Emeritus...

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...

I am an accomplished ADA Compliance & Defense attorney. With a practice encompassing over 30 years, I am dedicated to providing exceptional service and legal representation. I am a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and on the Advisory Board of Directors of the Advanced Commercial Leasing Institute, Georgetown University Law Center. I also serve as Chair of JMBM's ADA Compliance & Defense Group and am the author of the ADA Compliance & Defense Blog. My transactional practice includes leasing, lease administration for developers and tenants, acquisition and sales, portfolio management, regulation of real property use and development,...

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...

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,...

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...

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.