Born:
- Abington, Pennsylvania, June 26, 1946
Education:
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (B.S.M.E., 1968)
- University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law (J.D., 1973)
Admissions:
- California, 1973
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California, 1977
- U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 1978
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, 1991
- District of Columbia, 1994
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1994
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, 1994
- U.S. Supreme Court, 1997
Certified:
- Patent Law, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 1978
Member:
- State Bar of California
- District of Columbia Bar
- The Bar Association of the District of Columbia
- Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Aviation Law Section
- Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles
- Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Staff Engineer, Southern California Edison, 1968-1970
- Moot Court Judge, Pepperdine University School of Law
- Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, MDL 817, United Airlines Crash, Sioux City, Iowa, 1989
- Trial Team Member, 1991-1992, United Airlines Crash, Sioux City, Iowa: Member, 1989
- Trial Counsel, United Airlines Crash, Sioux City, Iowa: Member, 1989
- Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, MDL-00-1343-CAL, Alaska Airlines Crash, off Point Mugu, California, 2000
- Plaintiffs' Executive Committee, September 11, 2001 Tort Litigation
Lectures/Speeches:
- "Mapping the Maze of Considerations in Disaster Litigation," Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, October 6, 1996
- Lewis v. Sacramento County Re: High Speed Police Pursuits, University of San Diego School of Law, 1998
- Panel Moderator: Aviation Issues in the New Millennium - Ramifications of the RAND Report ("Safety in the Skies - Personnel and Parties in NTSB Aviation Accident Investigations") presented by the Aviation and Space Law Committee of the American Bar Association Tort and Insurance Practice Section and the Aviation Litigation Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation, October 19, 2000
- "Successful Handling of Wrongful Death Cases in California," Lorman Education Services, August 2001 and January 2002
Honors:
- Listed, Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers
- Who's Who in the World
- Who's Who in America
- Who's Who in American Law
- Who's Who in the West
- Aviation Counsel Magazine's List of Recommended High Flyers, believed by the International Air Transport Association's Legal Dept. to be one of the most elite lists of aviation law practitioners ever produced
- National Air Disaster Foundation Safety Award, 2002
- Southern California Super Lawyer 2005
Published Cases:
- Curry v. Continental Airlines
513 F. 2d 691 (9th Cir. 1975) - Sigala (Rachelle) v. Anaheim City School District
Court of Appeal, Fourth District, 19 Cal.Rptr.2d 38, 15 Cal.App.4th 661, 82 Ed. Law Rep. 143 (1993) - Lewis v. Sacramento
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 98 F.3d 434, 65 USLW 2319, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7501, 96 Daily Journal D.A.R. 12353 (1996) - County of Sacramento v. Lewis,
523, U.S. 833, 140 L. Ed. 2d 1043, 118 S. Ct. 1708 (1998) - Prudential Home Mort. Co. v. Superior Court
66 Cal.App.4th 1236 (1998) - In re Air Crash Off Point Mugu, California, on January 30, 2000
145 F.Supp.2d 1156 (N.D.Cal., 2001) - Butler v. Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc.
109 Cal.App.4th; 135 Cal. Rptr. 2d 762 (2003)
Practice Areas:
- Aviation Accident Law
- Catastrophic Injury
- Class Actions
- Complex and Multi-District Litigation
- Mass Disaster Litigation
- Personal Injury Law
- Product Liability Law
- Railroad Accident Litigation
- School Bus Accidents
- Truck Accidents (commercial)
- Wrongful Death Law