Pacifica Lawyers

Matthew Kenefick has an extensive law practice which includes litigation, real estate and compliance matters. Mr. Kenefick represents a variety of industries including manufacturers, financial institutions, retailers, real estate developers, wineries and the hotel industry, among others.

Robert B. Kaplan is an accomplished California Bankruptcy, Business, and Real Estate Law attorney with an emphasis on creditors' rights and bankruptcy related cases. Focused on results, Bob has been providing rigorous and uncompromising legal representation for over 40 years.

Bob is a Co-Managing Partner at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, a firm listed on American Lawyer's AmLaw 200. A highly skilled and knowledgeable attorney, he is ready to assist you in accomplishing your legal objectives.

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...

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...

John Runfola is a highly experienced and effective criminal defense attorney. His cases have at times drawn international attention, and he has succeeded in winning favorable results for clients both at trial and through skillful pre-trial work. He is listed in Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers and has earned the highest rating from the national lawyer registry Martindale Hubbell. Prior to starting his own practice, Mr. Runfola served as a Public Defender in San Francisco, where he gained invaluable courtroom experience. He is a seasoned trial lawyer, yet is equally adept at the behind-the-scenes work that often proves critical to a...

Former prosecutor, combat veteran (USCG), complex dispute resolution, competitive business litigation, depositions, trials, law and motion, appeals.

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...

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.

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...

I am an accomplished Divorce, Family, and Arbitration & Mediation attorney. I compassionately represent clients throughout the Bay Area with a broad range of family law matters.

As a Certified Family Law Specialist, I provide the experience, knowledge and skill needed to advocate for the best possible outcomes. I am dedicated to exceptional counsel to meet your family's legal needs and goals.

Adam McNeile is a managing partner at the law firm of Kemnitzer, Barron & Krieg, LLP. Adam has experience litigating a wide variety of consumer protection actions, representing hundreds of individual consumers in their fight for justice against large corporations. His practice focuses on consumer financing and automotive issues, including door-to-door sales scams, warranty law, automotive dealership fraud, elder abuse, and civil rights violations. Adam has extensive experience with fraud related to the sale and financing of solar panels and other home solicitation issues. Adam has been appointed lead counsel in dozens of class actions in both state and federal court....

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...

Representing injured workers exclusively since 1995.

Taylor Burras is a Labor and Employment attorney. Her practice focuses on the hospitality and insurance industries.

Taylor has experience counseling and litigating on behalf of employers in matters relating to discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination, reduction in workforce, hiring, leaves of absence, and wage and hour issues. She has also handled matters before the Employment Development Department (EDD), Department of Labor Standards Enforcement, Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the National Labor Relations Board. Taylor has successfully represented hotels, resorts and restaurants in numerous general and employment litigation matters. In the insurance industry, she has defended large insurance companies...

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.

Ottinger Employment Lawyers specializes in protecting the rights of employees and fighting injustice in the workplace. For over a decade we have represented current and former employees in their pursuit of fair treatment and compensation. We challenge illegal labor practices in companies of all sizes. We help employees benefit from the rights guaranteed to them under state and federal law.

Our firm handles all aspects of employment law including:

Overtime Pay Recovery
Employment Discrimination
Retaliation
Sexual Harassment
Severance Package Negotiation

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,...

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...

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...

Accomplished attorney and financier with over 30 years of experience advising companies in commercial real estate transactions, including legal entity formation, joint ventures, property acquisitions and sales, due diligence, land use planning and entitlements, secured and unsecured financing, construction contracts, litigation and arbitration.

Transaction oriented with significant experience in a wide range of commercial contracts, including reviewing, drafting and negotiating joint venture agreements, development agreements, construction contracts, public utility agreements (including service design, installation and power purchase), vendor agreements, service contracts, operation and maintenance agreements, real estate leases, secured and unsecured financing loan agreements, etc. Adept at working collaboratively and...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

Solving business problems from a legal perspective for technology companies. I have served as a trusted advisor to boards and C-suites in private and public companies for more than 15 years including more than 9 years at Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ:BIRT) as its SVP, GC, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Development until the sale of Actuate to OpenText, Inc in 2015. I have particular expertise with M&A, governance, managing litigation and operational process and policy improvement. A consistent strong performer, I was a securities litigator at Wilson Sonsini and Heller Ehrman and a law clerk at the Federal District Court for the...

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...

Since 2007 our office has been dedicated to representing San Francisco and Sacramento area employees and victims of serious injuries in a wide range of employment, wrongful termination and injury cases. Individual approach to each client and each injury or employment case is what distinguishes us from other attorneys, as we recognize that each case is as different as each person who has been either injured or aggrieved by their employer.

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...

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...

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.

Trial lawyer representing those harmed due to the wrongful conduct of others. Catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, products liability, aviation, and business torts.

The $14.9 million jury verdict we obtained for our client injured in a plane crash was one of the largest personal injury verdicts obtained in the state of California in 2008. The $20 million settlement we obtained for a client burned in a utility explosion was one of the largest personal injury settlements in the state for 2006.

Other representative results:

$10 million jury verdict for widow of man killed in California helicopter crash (2011);

$2.6 million settlement for a...

For the last 27 years ago I have focused my practice on representing workers from executives to rank and file in claims against their former and current employers. I maintain a limited case load to make sure each case gets the attention it deserves. I am highly experienced, so you can be sure you have the right lawyer to take on your civil employment dispute. I try to make a real and positive difference for each client by honest advice and advocating vigorously and ethically for you. Personal: After living in several countries and several states as a child, at 18, I...

Christopher Whang is a Civil Litigator representing clients in a wide range of litigation matters, particularly commercial landlord-tenant issues, contract disputes, bankruptcy, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims. Most notably, Christopher has worked with several, high-profile, Fortune 500 companies in the Bay Area in various litigation matters. Christopher has extensive experience in the full spectrum of litigation, including pre-lawsuit investigations, drafting pleadings, conducting discovery, taking and defending depositions, performing legal research, motion practice, trial preparation, negotiations, and client interaction. Prior to becoming a Civil Litigator, Christopher worked at various Public Defender offices all across the Bay Area and Sacramento....

Stuart Tubis is a civil litigator representing clients in a wide range of matters, including Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims and intellectual property disputes. Stuart regularly counsels businesses on the full spectrum of ADA compliance and represents their interests in civil litigation and Department of Justice investigations. Stuart has a background in technology, which provides a unique aptitude for web accessibility issues (a subject of increasing importance given recent regulatory action). Stuart has experience in all aspects of litigation, including negotiation, binding-arbitration, trial advocacy, settlement and alternative dispute resolution.

Jamie Ogden is a partner in the Taxation and Trusts & Estates Groups. He advises individuals and business entities on a range of tax planning, tax controversy and estate planning matters. In addition to his experiences in private practice, Jamie also brings several years of service from both state and federal government, including a federal district court clerkship with the Honorable Patricia A. Seitz in Miami, Florida.

Jamie routinely advises U.S. and non-U.S. individuals on complex income, estate and gift tax planning, along with business succession and general family office matters. He serves as lead tax counsel on M&A transactions, financing,...