Chair of the firm’s Litigation Department, Buddy is a multi-faceted litigator with a track record of resolving complex business issues. He has 25 years of experience representing a range of public entities and businesses, including universities, school districts, utilities, major retailers, property owners, and developers.

Litigation

Buddy brings significant industry experience to the firm’s well-established real estate, land use, environmental and construction practices. He handles issues such as toxic torts, real estate and partnership disputes, premises and product liability, and construction defects, among many others.

Experience

He is a member of the Public Agency Risk Management Association (PARMA) and the Claims & Litigation Management Alliance. He is highly regarded by clients for his integrity and results-oriented determination.

A member of the construction practice group, Matt has represented owners, contractors, design professionals and sureties in a wide array of construction transactions and litigation throughout California and the western states.

From 1986 until 2002, Matt served as Chief Litigation Counsel in California for one of the five largest general contractors in the United States. He supervised complex construction litigation cases involving issues of payment, licensing, construction defects, design failures, mechanic’s liens and stop notices, and has advocated and defended claims for delays and extras involving damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He has also attacked and defended numerous bid awards under Public Contract Code’s Subletting and Subcontracting Fair Practice Act.

He has tried or arbitrated more than 30 construction disputes and successfully mediated or resolved countless more.
On the transactional side, Matt has drafted and negotiated the contracts for the design and construction of a wide array of public and private projects including individual and multi-family housing, hotels, hospitals, retail and office buildings, and manufacturing facilities.

For more than three decades, Chuck’s name has been synonymous with real estate law in California.

He has been involved in a host of high-profile transactions, from the Kaiser Center in Oakland to the Grant Hotel in San Diego. From 1985 to 2016, he taught advanced real estate courses to law and MBA students at the University of California’s Boalt Hall. He has also been a prolific writer and speaker on legal issues. Chuck frequently serves as a mediator, arbitrator and judge pro tem. He was the firm’s managing partner from 2000 to 2002.

Lately, much of his time has been devoted to expert consultant and witness work in complex cases across the country. Chuck has been retained as an expert consultant and witness in a variety of transactional and state and federal court matters throughout the United States. His expert work in these matters has covered such topics as title insurance, escrows, trust deeds and foreclosures, real estate sales transactions, commercial and real estate lending, commercial leasing, guarantees, attorney and broker standards of care and conduct, title searching and chain-of-title issues, priorities, real estate development, personal property secured transactions, and usury in the real estate context.

But Chuck never loses touch with his core practice focus on real estate transactions — lending, mortgages, trust deeds, escrows, title insurance, commercial leasing, real estate developments, guarantees, personal property secured transactions and broker issues.

Katherine’s experience includes representing individual and business clients in a wide range of civil litigation matters, including trade secret misappropriation, First Amendment issues, employment disputes and probate matters.

A veteran litigator, Stephen has more than 40 years of experience in environmental and employment law at both state and federal levels. He has represented employers and individuals in class action and other complex litigation, guided business executives on policy and operational questions, and argued cases at all levels of the federal judicial system, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Stephen is experienced at successfully employing alternative and creative approaches to conflict resolution.

Environmental Litigation

Stephen’s current practice focuses primarily on environmental matters, including contaminated site remediation, brownfield development, cost recovery litigation, and related toxic tort and stigma damage claims. He has guided clients in public agency review of environmental permitting, claims related to chemical handling, response to abandoned tank sites, quarry restoration, landfills, and solid waste management issues.

Creative Conflict Resolution

Stephen pursues creative solutions to address business needs and community concerns, including mediation. He has planned for integration of institutional controls with permitting to reduce requirements for engineered remedies. He is experienced in fashioning agreements for funding of neighborhood relocation to obtain community support for an in-place remedy, the use of historical resources including federal archives to increase contribution from other parties, and marshaling scientific evidence for cost apportionment and allocation.

Employment and Employee Benefits Experience

Stephen’s employment, civil rights and employee benefits law experience includes work with employers, public entities and labor unions in a variety of administrative and litigation matters. He has handled matters under ERISA, Title VII, ADEA, Americans With Disabilities Act, Executive Order 11246, OSHA, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and corresponding state legislation, as well as proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, the California Labor Commissioner, and in contract arbitrations and negotiations. He has extensive collective bargaining experience. He has represented numerous construction industry pension, health and apprenticeship trust funds with assets exceeding  $500 million in matters arising under ERISA, including plan structure, benefit improvements, withdrawal liability, COBRA and HIPAA implementation, and fiduciary liability.

Leadership

Active in civic and professional organizations, Stephen served as president of the Danville-Sycamore Valley Rotary Club, and serves as an early neutral evaluator and mediator for the United States District Court. Stephen served in the United States Naval Reserve as an active duty engineering officer from 1969 through 1972.

Pamela is Of Counsel at Wendel Rosen. She counsels the firm’s public agency teams in their work on behalf of counties, municipalities, transportation agencies, regulatory agencies, and other public entities.

As part of the firm’s public agency team, Pamela works with public agencies in matters involving project planning, eminent domain, inverse condemnation, and public agency law and helps resolve legal issues related to funding, design, acquisition, and construction. She assists agencies in overcoming the challenges inherent in public projects, working from early stages, through trial and beyond, to help deliver public projects on time and on budget.

A litigation partner and co-chair of the firm’s Real Estate Litigation group, Al practically grew up in court. With a father who was Clerk of the Court, he spent his summers observing trials and studying courtroom strategy. Today he’s known for successfully resolving complex real estate, commercial, and financial disputes. Highly skilled in all facets of litigation, including trials and appeals, Al is most proud when he can craft a solution before litigation starts.

Financial, Real Estate, Commercial Disputes

Al is experienced representing parties on all sides and in all stages of financial, real estate and commercial disputes. He advises clients regarding problematic real estate and commercial transactions, investments, secured transactions, loan defaults, corporate and partnership governance and dissolutions, and insolvencies. His clients range from Fortune 50 companies to individuals, including developers, property owners, businesses, financial institutions, venture funders, investors, and fiduciaries.

Creative Solutions

With broad experience in the real estate and finance markets, Al is skilled in the full cycle of a dispute, from the time of breach or default, through settlement, restructuring, and workout negotiations, to litigation and even bankruptcy. While many litigators have a sue-first mentality, Al works closely with clients to develop creative and aggressive strategies to quickly achieve their business objectives while minimizing the costs and risks of litigation.

Dispute Prevention

Al counsels clients regarding deal terms and protections that help limit the risks and costs of future disputes. Al routinely advises clients and transactional counsel on deal structure and protections, as well as on the implementation of operational practices and procedures to prevent disputes or, at least, maximize a client’s rights and remedies if litigation becomes necessary. This advice includes review and revision of deal documents, term sheets, standard contract forms, promissory notes, guarantees, operating agreements, invoices and vendor agreements.

Probably the only lawyer with a meat grinder in his office, Al comes from a long line of sausage makers. He enjoys making his dad’s recipes and creating his own, as well as teaching others to make sausage. Al is also a regular at the local CrossFit box. Above all else, he enjoys hanging out with his family.

With more than 40 years of civil trial experience, David handles a wide array of business litigation, employment law and competitive business practices counseling and litigation. Before joining Wendel Rosen in 1981, he served as a Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco for four years.

Business Litigation

David represents businesses and their owners and shareholders in commercial and business disputes, including derivative shareholder actions, involuntary corporate dissolutions, breach of loyalty and fiduciary duty claims, and trade and contract disputes in both arbitration forums and civil courts.

Employment

David counsels clients in complying with federal, state and local employment laws and defends employers in wage and hour regulation disputes as well as employment lawsuits and discrimination claims, including age discrimination, sexual harassment and battery, pregnancy discrimination, racial discrimination, disability discrimination, family leave disputes and wrongful termination cases. He provides sexual harassment prevention training and other training for managers and supervisors. David prepares and updates employee handbooks for employers. He also assists clients with matters related to unfair competition, trade secrets and non-competition agreements involving businesses and employees.

Disabled Access Litigation (ADA Compliance)

David regularly represents property owners and tenants in disputes involving equal access to business premises and services by individuals with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the related California Unruh Civil Rights Act and Disabled Persons Act. He guides clients to find solutions to access barriers and resolve related lawsuits.

Bill has spent two decades building a unique practice devoted to serving the needs of businesses, large and small, in a variety of industries. Bill’s particular blend of transactional, regulatory, litigation and green business experience makes him an invaluable adviser to his clients. Corporate clients look to him as their outside general counsel, seeking advice on both business and legal matters critical to their success.

General Corporate

Bill chairs the firm’s Business practice group. He regularly provides small to middle market companies with outside general counsel services.  He counsels his clients on entity formation, business and legal advice on proposed business transactions, general contract negotiation and drafting, brand and licensing protection, corporate governance, capital raises, and other general business matters.

Food and Beverage

Bill co-chairs the firm’s Food and Beverage practice group. He helps companies navigate regulatory, transactional and litigation matters in the food, beverage, dietary supplement and cosmetic industries. Bill assists his clients with:

• Contract negotiation and drafting
• Product label, labeling, advertising, and marketing material review
• Capital raises through convertible debt and private placement offerings
• Corporate governance
• Responding to governmental/regulatory actions
• Product recalls
• Resolving business disputes and/or threatened class action matters
• Mergers and acquisitions

Green Business

Bill also leads the firm’s Green Business practice group — an experienced group of attorneys advising and supporting companies that value health, the environment, and a sustainable economy. His green business clients include 1% for the Planet, B Corp members, public benefit corporations, and other companies that focus on sustainability issues.

Litigation

Bill has more than two decades of experience litigating matters in state and federal court. Since joining the firm’s litigation group in 2002, he has represented local and regional clients on matters including contractual disputes, unfair business practice claims, false/misleading labeling and advertising, shareholder and/or partnership disputes, environmental contamination claims, product liability, toxic tort, and eminent domain disputes. Drawing upon his experience, Bill regularly counsels clients on risk analysis, litigation strategy, dispute avoidance measures, and pre-trial dispute resolution. If informal resolution cannot be achieved, Bill advances his clients’ interest through trial.

Marc has more than 20 years of litigation experience, involving mass toxic torts, personal injuries and product and premises liability issues across various industries, including energy, manufacturing, shipping, utilities and governmental entities, as well as general liability, CERCLA and real estate matters. He brings industry experience to the firm’s well-established litigation practice. Marc also has substantial expertise in asbestos litigation.