Recognized in Best Lawyers since 2012 
Conal Doyle is a nationally recognized trial attorney that accepts a small number of catastrophic injury, insurance bad faith, and high-stakes civil cases each year and takes them to verdict.
Mr. Doyle has argued before the United States Supreme Court and has obtained significant jury verdicts in some of California’s most defense-friendly venues. In December 2013 he served as lead trial counsel in McKnight v. Spain, a Kern County medical malpractice case that produced a $26.8 million verdict, the largest of its kind in that county’s history. The defense had offered $300,000 before trial. The Daily Journal named the result one of California’s top ten verdicts for 2013, and the National Law Journal placed it among the top 100 nationally. Three months later Doyle tried a premises liability case against Jack in the Box in the same county and won $3.8 million against a pretrial offer of $200,000.
His courtroom work extends beyond injury cases. In May 2024 he served on the trial team that won $79,092,133 for the former chief executive of Matterport, Inc. in the Delaware Court of Chancery, in a dispute over stock transfer restrictions imposed after the company’s de-SPAC merger. Matterport never made a settlement offer at any point in the case. In April 2025 the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the damages award, and after pre and post judgment interest, the $108,756,082.10 judgment was paid in full in June 2026.
Doyle argued Hui v. Castaneda before the United States Supreme Court in 2010 for the family of Francisco Castaneda, an immigration detainee who died after state and federal officials refused to authorize a biopsy for what proved to be penile cancer. He tried the companion case against the State of California to a $1,735,557 verdict, more than 170 times the state’s $10,000 pretrial offer, and later resolved the federal claims for $1,950,000. The litigation drew coverage from 60 Minutes, the BBC, and newspapers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and it is credited with helping drive reform of medical care in immigration detention. Doyle also represented the Castaneda family before Congress.
His honors include the 2012 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award in human rights, the 2011 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, the 2011 Attorney of the Year Award from The Recorder, the 2020 Street Fighter of the Year Award from the Consumer Attorneys of California, the 2011 Civil Justice Award from the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, and the 2011 Public Justice Achievement Award. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers every year since 2012 and in the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 since 2008.
Doyle came to plaintiffs’ work from the defense side. He spent six years as a trial attorney at one of Florida’s largest firms, won his first federal jury trial in a civil rights excessive force case at 27, and by 31 was lead trial counsel for an 1,100-member law enforcement agency. He tried twelve jury trials as defense counsel and won eleven.
He earned his J.D. cum laude from Florida State University College of Law in 1997, after ranking first in his class during his first year at Stetson University College of Law. He serves on the board of directors of the Public Justice Foundation. Doyle is admitted in California, Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia, and before the United States Supreme Court and the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits.
