Newport Beach Lawyers

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Immigration lawyer located in Irvine, CA. Contact us at 949-440-3240 for all your immigration needs including the new "Dream Act" (known officially as Deferred Action), deportation and removal, "green cards", employment visas, and naturalization and US Citizenship.

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...

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.

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...

Steven I. Hochfelsen is a litigation attorney. A member of the American and the Orange County Bar Associations since 1986, Mr. Hochfelsen has handled business litigation of every description through trial. In recent years, Mr. Hochfelsen has represented major commercial landlords, developers, nationwide manufacturers and distributors of consumer goods, insurance companies and defense contractors in various state and federal court cases. His recent cases involve real property lease disputes, construction litigation, bankruptcy, general commercial contracts, unfair competition and trade secrets, insurance and bad faith issues and commercial fraud claims. Mr. Hochfelsen has extensive experience in Federal and state court representation...

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.

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.

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....

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...

Education J.D., Harvard Law School (1989) LL.M., University of Cambridge (1986) M.A., University of Cambridge (1986) B.A. (Hons.), University of Cambridge (1984) A.B., College of William and Mary, summa cum laude (1982) Phi Beta Kappa Admissions • California • United Kingdom (Barrister, Lincoln’s Inn) Courts • United States Supreme Court • California Supreme Court • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal, First, Second, Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Circuits • U.S. District Court for the Northern, Eastern and Central Districts of California • U.S. District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York

Sinan Sari, Esq. is the founding attorney and CEO of Yellow Law Group, the international practice he launched in 2021. Under his leadership the firm has grown from a solo practice into a multi-state, multi-country operation that now serves clients across the nation, from bases in Texas, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Istanbul. A graduate of Marmara University Faculty of Law (LL.B., 2014) and Loyola University Chicago School of Law (LL.M., 2020), Sinan combines rigorous academic training with nearly a decade of hands-on experience in U.S. immigration and cross-border business matters. He is licensed to practice in Texas and New York...

Sean Coffey, a Phillips ADR neutral, served as the 24th General Counsel of the Navy (2022–2025), leading over 1,100 attorneys worldwide. Previously a renowned trial lawyer, he handled plaintiff and defense cases in securities, class actions, and complex litigation. At Latham & Watkins, he secured a directed verdict in a bet-the-company case. At Bernstein Litowitz, he led the $6.2 billion WorldCom Securities Litigation recovery. As Chair of Complex Litigation at Kramer Levin, he advised corporate clients. As Navy General Counsel, Sean founded the Taxpayer Advocacy Project and led the exoneration of 256 African American Sailors from the 1944 Port Chicago courts-martial,...

Danielle Menitove is an independent arbitrator and mediator specializing in commercial and sports-related disputes, including antitrust, employment, intellectual property, gambling, anti-doping, and player-agent issues. Danielle serves as an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, and on the American Arbitration Association’s commercial, consumer, and national sports panels. Before starting her ADR practice, Danielle was a litigator at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York for over ten years, handling complex litigation in federal and state courts, government investigations, and advisory matters. Her cases involved antitrust, contract breaches, fiduciary duty, and unfair competition. ...

Jeffrey Mishkin, a Phillips ADR neutral, is the former Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of the NBA and head of Skadden’s Sports Practice. He specializes in sports-related disputes involving antitrust, intellectual property, labor, gambling, and commercial matters. At the NBA, Mishkin managed all legal affairs, including litigation, labor relations, commercial transactions, intellectual property, and anti-drug programs, leading collective bargaining and the 1998-1999 NBA labor dispute. At Skadden, he represented major sports organizations like the NFL, NHL, MLB, NCAA, and others, as well as high-profile athletes, including a top-ranked golfer. Now a full-time mediator and arbitrator, Mishkin serves on the Court...

Ann Cook brings a business-focused approach to Phillips ADR, leveraging a decade at Ernst & Young LLP, including two years as General Counsel. Experienced as both plaintiff and defendant, she understands dispute dynamics and has litigated, arbitrated, and mediated cases in accounting, securities, contracts, and employment. A creative problem solver, Ann advised on complex corporate initiatives, balancing risk and business goals, earning recognition as a tenacious leader. At EY, Ann managed legal strategy for a $20B firm with 50,000 employees, overseeing litigation and regulatory matters during high regulatory activity. She advised on public disclosure and bankruptcy issues for over 1,000 public...

Caroline brings extensive mediation and problem-solving expertise to Phillips ADR, drawing from her roles as General Counsel at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Principal Deputy White House Counsel. Known for her communication, judgment, and legal acumen, she excels in advising Boards and senior leaders on dispute resolution. At PwC, Caroline managed all legal, regulatory, compliance, and governance matters, handling lawsuits and regulatory issues with potential damages in the billions. She led settlement negotiations and mediations with opposing counsel, clients, and regulators like the SEC and FDIC, while resolving internal conflicts within PwC’s global network. As Principal Deputy White House Counsel under President Obama, she...