Laguna Beach Lawyers

Layn R. Phillips, founder of Phillips ADR Enterprises (PADRE), is a former U.S. Attorney and U.S. District Judge. Appointed at age 35 by President Reagan, he presided over 140+ trials in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas, and sat by designation on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Earlier, Judge Phillips served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, and at age 31, was nominated as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma. After leaving the bench, he spent 23 years at Irell & Manella, focusing on complex civil litigation, internal investigations, and alternative dispute resolution. He later founded PADRE, specializing...

Attorney Patrick Nolan has extensive trial experience which is reflected by his induction into the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) in 2021. ABOTA is the premier trial organization in the United States whose members are admitted only after a rigorous screening process of demonstrated trial skills. Mr. Nolan's trial results are often published in the Daily Journal, including his most recent verdict for $3 million in the federal court case of Saavedra v. Integon Preferred, and a pedestrian v. auto trial in San Bernardino Superior Court that settled with a key witness on the stand for $2.75 million....

Tom Antunovich is a California personal injury attorney specializing in serious and catastrophic injuries as well as auto accidents and dog bite cases. Tom serves as an associate attorney with Bisnar Chase.

Gavin Long is a California personal injury attorney representing injured plaintiffs. Gavin focuses on car accidents and serious injuries from dog bites, pedestrian accidents, and premise liability cases. Gavin has won multiple jury trials and taken on some of the largest corporations to ensure fair compensation for his injured clients. Gavin represents clients in San Bernardo, Orange County, Los Angeles & Riverside.

Manoah S. Marton graduated summa cum laude from Concordia University Irvine with a major in History & Political Thought and a national championship in NPDA parliamentary debate. During college, Manoah worked at Klein & Wilson as a law clerk. He then attended UCLA School of Law, where he served as a Managing Editor of the UCLA Law Review. During law school, Manoah also served as a judicial extern for Judge Charles R. Eskridge III in the Southern District of Texas. After graduating from UCLA, Manoah worked at one of the biggest law firms in the nation in the litigation department where...

Troy Sugg specializes in business law. He has extensive experience in corporate, partnership and LLC transactional matters, including mergers, acquisitions, financings and joint ventures. Mr. Sugg has been involved in transactions in a wide variety of business sectors and industries. Mr. Sugg has represented and worked extensively with companies of all sizes from small privately-held companies to large public companies. Prior to forming his own law firm, Mr. Sugg practiced law at the Orange County office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Mr. Sugg received his B.S. degree in Business from University of Southern California and his J.D. degree...

Dr. Harrison is an experienced patent attorney and founding partner of Barcelo, Harrison & Walker, LLP (BHW). His practice as a patent attorney includes patent infringement litigation, post-grant procedings, e.g., inter-partes review, before the US Patent & Trademark Office, and patent preparation and patent prosecution. Before co-founding BHW, Dr. Harrison served as an in-house counsel for Western Digital Corp., and as a litigation associate at Irell & Manella, LLP. Dr. Harrison also has many years of prior professional engineering experience in industry and academia. He was formerly employed as an R&D Manager at Seagate Technology, served on the...

Carolyn Tan started at DeWitt Algorri & Algorri in 2010 and is now a Partner who practices in the areas of catastrophic injury, bad faith insurance, wrongful death, premises liability, products liability, and public entity claims. She has successfully defeated complex pre-trial motions and has settled products liability cases against amusement parks and car manufacturers. She has tried cases with Mark Algorri and Patrick Nolan, many which have resulted in multi-million dollar verdicts.

Seth Aronson joined Phillips ADR in 2023, mediating disputes up to ten figures in securities, consumer class actions, privacy, false claims, shareholder derivative, antitrust, RMBS fraud, and complex litigation. He serves on the ADR panel for the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. Retiring from O’Melveny & Myers LLP in 2022 after 40 years as a trial and appellate lawyer, Seth was managing partner of O’Melveny’s Los Angeles office and chaired its Securities Litigation practice. Ranked by Chambers USA for 20 years, he was named California Securities Litigation Attorney of the Year twice by Benchmark Litigation, a “Top 100 Lawyer”...

Margaret B. Seymour, a retired U.S. District Judge (District of South Carolina, 1998–2022), was the first African American woman federal judge and chief federal judge in South Carolina. She served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge (1996–1998) before her district court appointment. Over 26 years, Judge Seymour presided over complex securities, contract, class action, commercial, banking, bankruptcy, employment, discrimination, and environmental cases, as well as criminal matters like drug conspiracies, white-collar crime, and Ponzi schemes. She sat by designation on the Fourth Circuit and participated in two three-judge-panel redistricting cases. She served twice on the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of...

For over 40 years, Michael Crosner, Esq. has been providing highly skilled and personalized legal services. We have aggressively represented thousands of personal injury victims, and have recovered millions of dollars against individuals, corporations, and municipalities. Crosner Law Corp. is not afraid to litigate difficult cases, and will advance whatever legal costs are necessary to achieve justice. All personal injury cases are taken on a contingency fee basis, meaning our clients pay no legal fees until a successful settlement/verdict is achieved. We can assist you in obtaining medical care without health insurance, and a rental vehicle if your automobile is...

Elliot Brown, a Phillips ADR neutral, is the former managing partner of Irell & Manella LLP. He spent nearly 30 years in IP litigation, counseling, and licensing at a top IP practice. Elliot graduated cum laude from Harvard College (1985), earning Phi Beta Kappa and a John Harvard Scholar award. He studied philosophy of science at Princeton, receiving an MA (1987) and a Mellon Fellowship, where game theory and Daniel Kahneman’s work on bargaining and cognitive bias shaped his approach to dispute resolution. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School (1990), serving as a Harvard Law Review...

Monarch Law Group is a personal injury and workers compensation law firm that provides personal service and care for our clients. We are not your typical mill but a place where you will have direct contact with your attorneys, have your phone calls and questions promptly answered, and a place where you will receive the upmost care and attention throughout your case. After a decade of litigating claims on behalf of insurance companies, I have gained significant experience, knowledge and tactics on how insurance companies work and thus, I know how to maneuver around their delay-and-deny tactics. If...

Michael G. Rhodes, a leading trial lawyer, served as Global Chair of Cooley LLP’s Litigation Department and cyber/data/privacy practice, and was on its Management Committee. He represented clients like Google, Meta, Open AI, the Kardashian-Jenner family, Justin and Hailey Bieber, Zoom, Coinbase, and the Golden State Warriors. For Meta, he won three IP jury trials and settled another during trial. He also secured a victory in a high-profile defamation trial for the Kardashian-Jenner family against Angela White (Blac Chyna). Retiring from Cooley in 2024 after 40 years, Rhodes earned accolades including American Lawyer "Litigator of the Year," Chambers USA top lawyer...

Barry R. Ostrager, a retired New York State Supreme Court Justice (Commercial Division, 2015–2023), presided over numerous trials and resolved hundreds of commercial cases. Before his judicial role, he was a litigation partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, leading its 300+ attorney Litigation Department and serving on the management committee. As lead trial counsel, Ostrager handled high-profile securities, antitrust, and insurance cases, including Swiss Re’s World Trade Center dispute and Travelers’ environmental coverage case against Shell Oil, both resulting in jury verdicts. He tried five cases involving $1 billion+ disputes and led major arbitrations, such as Andersen Consulting’s $14 billion...

Bill Ohlemeyer brings 40 years of experience to Phillips ADR, representing plaintiffs, defendants, and working at Altria Group. He has litigated, arbitrated, mediated, and tried cases in state and federal courts, advising on legal and regulatory challenges. A Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, Bill graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri Law School and clerked for Chief Judge Scott O. Wright. He joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon, becoming partner in 1991, then served as Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Altria (1999–2008), managing litigation for Philip Morris...

Niki, a Phillips ADR neutral for six years, brings 25 years of experience in complex litigation, claims administration, mediation, arbitration, and special master roles. A protégé of Judge Layn Phillips, she has co-mediated hundreds of cases, applying his innovative practices in mediations she leads and in court-appointed special master roles nationwide. Before Phillips ADR, Niki was Vice President of Client Strategy & Development at a national class action claims administrator. For nearly 15 years, she litigated securities fraud and complex commercial cases at a national class action law firm, securing court-approved settlements in high-profile matters. She also represented defendants in insurance...

Gregory P. Lindstrom, a Phillips ADR neutral since 2014, brings extensive litigation and business experience from his roles as a Latham & Watkins litigation partner and General Counsel of The Irvine Company. A full-time mediator and arbitrator since 2012, he specializes in complex disputes, including antitrust, securities, intellectual property, and commercial matters. Born in California, Greg graduated summa cum laude from UCLA (Economics, 1975) and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (1978), working with Professor Richard Posner. At Latham & Watkins (1978–2008), he became a partner in 1986, managed the San Francisco office, and served on the...

Andra Greene, a Phillips ADR neutral, has mediated OR COMEDIATED disputes from seven to 11 figures in NUMEROUS AREAS INCLUDING mass torts, class actions, EMPLOYMENT, securities, sexual misconduct, insurance, and intellectual property. She spent 35 years at Irell & Manella LLP, leading the Class Action Defense practice and serving as managing partner of the Newport Beach office and on the Executive Committee. A seasoned trial lawyer, Andra handled complex litigation in class actions, professional liability, employment, business torts, securities, and intellectual property in state and federal courts. She often represented lawyers and law firms. Recognized as a “Top Woman Lawyer in...

Clay joined Judge Phillips’ ADR practice in 2011. He graduated cum laude from Pepperdine University (B.A., History, 2006) and earned his J.D. from Fordham Law School (2011). He is admitted to the New York and California State Bars. Clay began mediating small claims in Bronx County Civil Court during law school. With over a decade at Phillips ADR, he now mediates complex disputes involving major companies in areas like antitrust, class actions, intellectual property, environmental, mass tort, insurance, securities, and contract disputes. He has worked on over 500 mediations, assisting Judge Phillips before, during, and after sessions, and directly engaging parties...

Jacqueline Mandel is an attorney at Sanders Law Group and is a member of the Copyright Infringement team. Prior to joining the team, she avidly defended her clients in contract disputes, evictions, criminal defense actions, and other civil matters. She has trial and litigation experience and is now looking forward to bringing those skills to defend the intellectual property rights of our clients.

Renee J. Aragona is a litigation associate of the Sanders Law Group. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Aragona represented and litigated mortgage lenders and loan servicers in creditor’s rights, landlord/tenant, and replevin actions. Ms. Aragona is now focused on representing and protecting the intellectual property of our clients through copyright infringement litigation. Ms. Aragona is passionate and fights for her clients rights.

Nicola C. Richards Nicola C. Richards is an associate attorney at the Sanders Law Group and is currently focused on advocating for her clients in consumer protection through the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). Prior to joining Sanders Law Group Ms. Richards worked as a paralegal handling insurance claims for credit cards, mortgages and loans. Ms. Richards went on to intern at Nassau County’s social services department where she managed cases for daily Fair Hearings. Moreover, Ms. Richards used her time to work with Lawyers Helping Our Community (LHOC) to increase business production for companies in Chicago IL for the Asian...

Joshua D. Vera is an associate attorney in the Intellectual Property Division of Sanders Law Group with a focus on copyright infringement. Mr. Vera takes great pride in advocating on behalf of his clients and ensuring the rights of intellectual property owners are respected.

Hani is in the business of protecting his clients’ inventions, technology, designs and brands. He knows that in order to be an effective advocate for his clients, he has to fully understand their businesses, objectives, technologies, competitors and the industries where they operate. His experience is technology extensive and covers products, processes and designs in mechanical, health care, information technology, material sciences, medical devices, computer networking, memory devices, electronics, gaming, apparel, nutritional supplements, biotechnology along with entertainment, sports and media. As a seasoned patent attorney, he prepares, files and prosecutes patent and trademark applications in front of the United States...