Case Summaries

As a member of Appellate Division, decided numerous appeals and writ matters relating to civil actions, including contract disputes and residential and commercial unlawful detainer actions.

Lengthy bench trial involving trust beneficiary's challenge to trustee's disposition of assets, including issues relating to claims of fiduciary breach and then-applicable safe harbor law.

As an attorney, handled appeals for 19 years in a broad range of substantive areas, including:

• National counsel for automobile manufacturers addressing whether federal law preempts common-law claims that a vehicle is defective for having one federally authorized restraint system instead of another. (The issue was resolved in Geier v. American Honda Motor Co. 529 U.S. 861 (2000).)

• Product liability cases involving the legal scope and factual limits of design defect and failure-to-warn claims; jury instructions; evidentiary errors; comparative fault and contributory negligence; and the effect of consumer modifications to product design.

•  Appeals relating to legal and factual support for damages, including causation of medical condition, medical diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and ability to work.
  
• Appeals related to availability and amount of punitive damages.
  
• Precedent-setting cases defining limits of accountant liability under federal securities laws.
  
• Application of Anti-SLAPP law to declaratory relief claim seeking interpretation of proposition 65’s notice requirements and determination of notice validity.
  
• Disqualification of counsel and expert for ethical lapse in failing to return improperly obtained privileged documents.
  
• Validity of the Clean Water Act's “migratory bird” rule as a basis for federal jurisdiction over water bodies and the scope of the “waste treatment system” exemption to Clean Water Act coverage.

• Settled dozens of disputes over spousal support, including temporary orders, permanent orders and post-judgment modification of support.

• Settled hotly contested property division involving a high net worth couple, family and separate property businesses, and third-party interests in some of the disputed assets.

• Handled trial of financial disputes in marital dissolution, including tracing of separate property through multiple accounts (including a HELOC-linked financial instrument) and the use of comingled funds to pay down of interest-only mortgage on under-water property; breach of fiduciary duty in loan made to family member; Epstein credits and Watts charges; and separate property reimbursement claims based on community use of carried tax loss after sale of separate property stock.

• Handled trial to determine marital share of commercial building owned jointly with third party, and division of marital share between spouses in light of a series of transmutations, each claimed by one or the other party to be breach fiduciary duty.

• Handled case addressing enforceability of Islamic marital contract as pre-marital agreement, including the effect of illegible terms written in Farsi and document's compliance with statute of frauds.

• Handled multiple cases involving breach of fiduciary duty, including: spouse secretly trading stocks on margin; spouse dissipating community assets by gambling; spouse loaning money to a sibling with no documentation or repayment terms; and spouse diverting community assets to account held with parents in Asia.

• Handled case involving whether adult child is “incapacitated from earning a living and without sufficient means" and subject to a support order under family code Section 3910.

Determined or settled hundreds of marital dissolution cases involving complex property and financial issues, including:

• Character, Value and Division of Property
• Division of Community Interest In Property Owned Jointly With Third Parties
• Accounting For Separate Property Contributions To Community Property and Community Contributions To Separate Property
• Tracing For Separate Property Reimbursement Claims
• Valuation of Businesses and Illiquid Assets
• Division of Post-Separation Payments, Deferred Compensation and Buyout of Vacation Accrued During Marriage
• Permanent Spousal Support
• Income Available For Support
• Non-Salary Compensation, Including Performance Bonuses, Commissions, Stock Distribution and Options, In-Kind Benefits
• Self-Employment Income, Income Tax Write offs and Depreciation, Cash Wages
• Investment and Rental Income, Family Gifts, and Loans
• Disability, Vocational Evaluations, and Imputed Income
• Disputes Over Date of Separation
• Claims of Fiduciary Breach
• Reimbursement and Post-Separation Accounting
• Post-Judgment Matters, Including Modification of Permanent Support, Omitted Assets, Requests To Vacate Judgment On Grounds of Fraud Or Mistake

Determined Or Settled Hundreds of Child Custody and Visitation Matters Presenting Complex Problems, Including:

• High Conflict Parents
• Parental Substance Abuse
• Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence
• Parental Alienation and Estrangement
• Developmentally Appropriate Parenting Plans
• Parenting Plans and Legal Custody For Children With Physical and Mental Health Challenges, Learning Differences, Refuse/Resist Dynamics, School Refusal
• Gender Dysphoria In Children/Adolescents and Parental Disagreement About Appropriate Medical Care
• School Choice and Homeschooling
• “Move Away” Disputes
• Support For Adult Children Under Family Code Section 3910