Best Lawyers in California, United States for Appellate Practice
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Ms. Sungaila’s appellate work, which focuses on complex tort cases raising cutting-edge issues, has helped define the scope of the duty to warn sophisticated users of product hazards, set the guidelines for admitting expert testimony at trial, and overturned multimillion dollar judgments. Ms. Sungaila has also consistently helped secure important rights for women and girls internationally, nationally, and throughout California. Ms. Sungaila has been pro bono counsel of record for amici ...
A Shareholder and Co-Chair of the Appellate Practice Group, Robert C. Little is a seasoned business lawyer and appellate litigator with over two decades of legal experience. Mr. Little is certified as a legal specialist in the practice of appellate law by the State Bar of California, one of fewer than 350 attorneys who hold this distinction among California’s 191,350 practicing lawyers. He has served as counsel of record in over 200 state and federal appeals and writ proceedings for ins...
Melanie Gold spent more than three decades as a research attorney for California appellate courts. She primarily worked with the justices of the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego, but also with those of the Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose as well as the California Supreme Court in San Francisco. During that time, Melanie analyzed thousands of briefs, motions, and petitions, advised justices on hundreds of appeals, and developed a deep understanding of how appellate court...
Education : Occidental College (B.A., Psychology/Theater, cum laude, 1979); University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law (J.D. 1983). Admitted to : California and New York State Bars; U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; U.S. District Courts in California. Professional Experience : Benedon & Serlin, LLP (2015-present); Senior Counsel head of Law and Motion & Appellate Department, Collins Collins Muir & Stewart (2012-2015); Associate, Lit...
Benjamin G. Shatz is a partner in the firm’s Trial Practice Group , focusing on appellate advocacy and complex litigation matters. Benjamin represents clients in high-stakes appeals, writ proceedings, and discretionary review matters in state and federal courts across the country. His appellate experience spans a broad range of industries and legal issues, including complex commercial disputes, entertainment and copyright matters, employment litigation, real estate and land use, banking...
Harry Chamberlain is a Shareholder of Buchalter, an Am Law 150 firm with a dozen U.S. offices. For over 40 years, he has served as trial and appellate counsel on behalf of Fortune 500 companies, and a variety of public and private sector clients in complex litigation matters. He is certified as an Appellate Specialist by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, arguing hundreds of appeals, including numerous cases before the California Supreme Court and the highest state and fe...
Ernest Galvan is a partner at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP. He assists clients in difficult and complex matters involving actual or potential litigation. Mr. Galvan has worked with clients to resolve a wide range of problems, including business formation and dissolution, commercial disputes, employment law matters, disability access compliance, and attorney fee disputes. Mr. Galvan’s practice includes both trial and appellate matters. He has successfully briefed and argued cases...
Wendy Albers is a partner at Benedon & Serlin LLP in Woodland Hills, California, where she focuses her practice on Appellate Practice. She joined the firm in 2012 and has more than 25 years of experience representing clients in state and federal appellate courts throughout California. Her work includes briefing and oral argument in complex civil appeals, as well as strategic guidance at critical stages of litigation. Certified in Appellate Law by the State Bar of California. Recognized by...
Sharon Baumgold is an expert in the arcane science of California appellate writs. She spent nearly four decades as a writs attorney on the California Court of Appeal’s Second District. There, she reviewed, analyzed, and advised appellate justices on more than 10,000 appellate writ petitions in all areas of state law, including arbitration, business and commercial litigation, employment, entertainment, government, insurance, real estate, and probate law. Frequent topics included jurisdic...
PRACTICE AREAS Trials Commercial Litigation Intellectual Property Insurance Recovery/Bad Faith Legal Malpractice EXPERIENCE Shaun Hoting focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation. Shaun’s practice includes litigation related to legal malpractice, contract disputes, patents, copyrights, trademarks, securities, and white collar defense. He has litigated cases involving technologies as diverse as software, cellular telephones, aerospace seals, and waterpark attractions. Shaun&r...
Gerry Serlin is a California appellate lawyer and a co-founder of Benedon & Serlin LLP, established in 1993. Based in Woodland Hills, California, he has devoted nearly four decades to Appellate Practice, handling civil appeals in state and federal courts throughout California and beyond. His career reflects sustained involvement in shaping appellate advocacy through briefing, oral argument, and strategic counseling. Gerry’s professional background includes numerous recognitions refl...
Nadia is a Certified Appellate Specialist who helps clients keep their wins, reverse their losses, and develop the law. She brings appeals to life with structured and vivid writing that distills messy facts, untangles convoluted areas of law, and effectively frames the issues in a way that resonates with appellate courts. Clients and colleagues rely on Nadia to successfully develop a case long before an appeal is filed. She collaborates on dispositive and other significant pre-trial motions a...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.