Best Lawyers Near You in La Jolla, California for Commercial Litigation
Kenneth M. Fitzgerald is a highly experienced trial lawyer, practicing business litigation with an emphasis on complex commercial cases and intellectual property disputes. Before joining the firm, Mr. Fitzgerald was a partner at Latham & Watkins, where he successfully tried numerous cases to verdict in state and federal courts throughout the country. Mr. Fitzgerald has handled a wide variety of commercial litigation matters involving contracts, business torts, trademarks, trade dress, cop...
Partner Alexis S. Gutierrez is the Chair of HFM's Litigation Department, in addition to serving on the firm’s Executive and Management Committees. With over 20 years of first chair experience, Mr. Gutierrez provides business and employment counseling and complex commercial litigation support to public and private entities, and non-profit organizations. He enjoys Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer rating (“AV Preeminent”) for Legal Ability and General-Ethical Standards. ...
Ed Chapin is the Managing Partner in the San Diego office of Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, a national law firm with offices in the District of Columbia, New York, California, Tennessee, and Maryland. Ed received his J.D. from the University of Missouri School of Law and his B.S. from Southwest Missouri State University. Ed is a veteran litigator whose practice spans class actions, unfair business practices, professional negligence, insurance coverage, bad faith, toxic torts, serious personal in...
Jenny Dixon represents individuals and companies in business and employment disputes, corporate and securities fraud, and violations of antitrust and competition laws. She has represented employers in proceedings before the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) Labor Commissioner’s office, Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), and the Civil Rights Department (CRD). With over 25 years of experience in both the pursuit and defense of complex claims, Jenny has the...
James Lance is an experienced trial attorney who has represented both plaintiffs and defendants for 38 years. He regularly represents defendants in bet-the-company litigation, and has obtained several 7 and 8 figure verdicts, judgments and settlements for personal injury and commercial plaintiffs. Lance obtained a judgment of $12,933,000 in 2024 for an individual plaintiff asserting an employment claim. In addition to commercial matters, Lance routinely represents individuals asserting seriou...
David is a founding partner of Dunn DeSantis Walt & Kendrick, LLP. For over a decade, his practice in Southern California has included business and corporate representation, commercial litigation, including class action and employment matters of all types, and professional liability defense. He regularly appears in California trial and appellate courts. He also regularly represents and counsels businesses on strategic, non-litigation and risk management matters.From 2006-2008, David serve...
Eric Acker is a partner and trial lawyer in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. Mr. Acker has tried more than 50 trials (including more than 47 jury trials) in courtrooms across the country. Mr. Acker’s recent trials have involved a variety of technologies and significant legal issues. In the high-profile SCO v. Novell case, following a three-week trial, the jury affirmed our client Novell’s ownership of the copyrights to the UNIX software code and rejected SCO’s c...
Nicholas D. Brauns is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Commercial Litigation. Nicholas D., who practices law in San Diego, California, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Nicholas D. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
As one of the founding partners at Noonan Lance Boyer & Banach, and most recently a partner at Kirby Noonan Lance & Hoge, Ethan T. Boyer dedicates his practice to resolving complex business and commercial disputes, including intellectual property matters, real estate and product liability cases. Boyer has successfully handled all aspects of commercial and business litigation, in trials, arbitrations and appeals. Boyer has been named one of the Best Lawyers in America® by his peers...
Cheryl Dunn Soto's practice has focused on representing commercial policyholders in insurance coverage matters and insurance/bad faith litigation since 2008. Her clients include law firms, accountants, contractors, developers, real estate professionals, medical groups, broker-dealers, HOAs, distributors and manufacturers, and other companies throughout California. Cheryl handles a wide variety of coverage matters and has significant experience with liability policies, including directors and ...
Josh Franklin is a business trial lawyer who has tried nearly fifty jury trials in his career. His practice focuses on insurance coverage/bad faith litigation and business litigation. In the area of insurance coverage, Josh regularly represents policyholders in matters arising out of an array of insurance policies, including directors and officers liability (D&O), errors and omissions (E&O), employment practices liability (EPL), commercial general liability (CGL), and cyber. Josh has ...
Craig R. McClellan is the first and only San Diego personal injury attorney selected for admission to the Inner Circle of Advocates, a prestigious invitation-only group of top plaintiff's attorneys, limited to 100 members nationwide. Mr. McClellan has obtained more than 130 verdicts and settlements in excess of one million dollars, and is a three-time recipient of the "Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award" from the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego for cases in which million and multi-million dollar ...
Steven Cologne was elected Managing Partner of the Firm in 2016. He devotes his practice to complex Tort and Commercial litigation in State and Federal Courts. In 2020, Mr. Cologne achieved the distinction of being certified as a Fellow in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) effective May 2020. On May 4, 2020, he was admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia. Mr. Cologne joined Higgs Fletcher & Mack in 1999 after previously enjoying 15 years as an associate, partner ...
Steven A. Goldfarb, a former longtime co-chair of Hahn Loeser’s national Litigation Practice Area , is a skilled and highly acclaimed trial lawyer practicing in California and Ohio with experience representing companies and individuals across the country in diverse business litigation matters. In addition to leading the firm’s well-recognized Class Action and Title Insurance Industry Teams, Steve has significant experience in unfair competition/trade secrets, insurance coverage/ba...
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.