Best Lawyers Near You in Rancho Santa Fe, California for Commercial Litigation
Erwin Shustak is the founder and Managing Partner of the Firm. He heads the Litigation and Arbitration Department, with over 40 years of extensive experience in a wide variety of complex disputes and transactions, across the country and overseas. Mr. Shustak specializes in litigations, trials, arbitrations and appeals of complex securities, financial and business disputes, with a particular emphasis in the areas of securities and financial services and regulation law. Few attorneys have the d...
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...
Jim’s practice, throughout his career, has focused on defending and advising professionals, including attorneys, accountants, architects, engineers, construction management companies, doctors and other health professionals, real estate professionals, insurance agents and brokers, directors and officers, and financial advisors. He also has extensive experience providing general business representation, including risk management counseling and contract review/drafting, and handling comple...
Kevin V. Desantis is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Commercial Litigation, Legal Malpractice Law - Defendants, Litigation - Labor and Employment, Professional Malpractice Law - Defendants and Transportation Law. Kevin V., who practices law in San Diego, California, has been recognized since 2017. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Kevin V. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic a...
Noah A. Katsell is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Commercial Litigation. Noah A., who practices law in San Diego, California, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Noah A. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
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...
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...
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...
Paul Leeds is a Commercial Litigation attorney with over 20 years of experience navigating the minefields of bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings for clients in state and federal courts. He frequently represents court appointed fiduciaries, creditors, and business owners looking to maximize recovery from distressed assets.Mr. Leeds first goal- always- is to find a cost-effective business solution to a complex dispute. When a business solution isn’t available, his in-depth knowledge of ...
In his three decades of legal practice, Sean Coughlin has focused his practice on complex business and real estate litigation, representing commercial real estate lenders and bankruptcy litigation matters. Coughlin approaches each matter with the goal of achieving the best possible business result. Coughlin has successfully litigated, arbitrated and tried hundreds of complex disputes in state court, federal court and bankruptcy court. He is admitted to all California Courts, several U.S. Dist...
Steve Coopersmith is the founder and Managing Partner of The Coopersmith Law Firm, LLP in San Diego, California. The Firm represents clients throughout Southern California in a wide range of business and corporate litigation matters, including those stemming from corporate and partnership dissolutions, securities and financial fraud violations, bet-the-company litigation, executive-level business employment disputes, and fine art law disputes. Mr. Coopersmith also handles select planning and ...
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...
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 ...
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.