My mission for the cases I choose to undertake is to obtain the best possible outcome for my clients.  Before accepting a case, I first find out what my client wishes to achieve. I determine the facts and decide if the goals are realistic. I identify a preliminary strategy and then ascertain what resources are required to best implement that approach. With these conclusions in mind-the goals, facts and resources needed to achieve them-I determine if I am the best lawyer to undertake the case. It is this front-end evaluation and the communication established between attorney and client from the start that makes people feel comfortable with the process.

I don't win every case-some simply are not winnable. However, sometimes winning means controlling risk by minimizing the damage and saving substantial legal fees in the process. All is well that ends. Period.

The headline grabbers: You've probably seen some of my larger cases in the media:

• Proctor & Gamble Corporation in their toxic shock syndrome litigation defense

• Exxon Valdez litigation

• Representation of two of the some sixty insurance companies sued by the asbestos industry in the Coordinated Asbestos Insurance Coverage Cases

• The Belmont School case in Los Angeles, where the Belmont school was constructed on land containing lethal methane gas.

• I represented the Nigerian Government in an action brought by a California resident arising out of the nationalization of a Nigerian salt factory

Less prominent cases, but no less important:

• Downstream flooding : My clients' house flooded each time it rained because the property above theirs failed to correctly channel the runoff. Courts rarely issue mandatory injunctions ordering defendants to conduct repairs on their own property-this time they did.

• Earthquake damage : My client's property was damaged in an earthquake but Allstate Insurance Company refused to honor their policy terms. A jury returned a verdict in favor of my client and ordered Allstate to pay.

• Protection from unscrupulous attorneys : A group of attorneys who called themselves the Consumer Justice Center sued my client, a New York watch manufacturer, together with a large retail drugstore chain for false advertising. I cut the action off before it ever got to trial.

• Over zealous international estate taxation : My client lived in England. Her brother, who lived in South Africa, left a sizeable investment portfolio in a San Francisco bank. Because he died without a valid will, the IRS imposed massive estate taxes on my client. We challenged their finding, and won my client a substantial tax refund.

• Honoring the employment agreement : I represented a senior executive in a federal court action he brought against an affiliate of Swissair, for failing to honor the terms of his compensation agreement. We settled the case in my client's favor.

• Refusal to pay professional fees owed : My client, a forensic accountant testified as an expert witness for the plaintiff in a jury trial that awarded the plaintiff $1.3 million for future lost profits. When the plaintiff refused to pay my client his agreed fee, we took them to arbitration. The arbitrator awarded my client his full fee, interest, attorneys' fees and costs

• Protecting the falsely accused : My client was sued in a California federal court for allegedly being part of an international conspiracy involving the hacking and pirating of source codes embedded in digital smart cards sold on the Internet. The court granted my client's motion to dismiss all twenty-three claims stated against him.