About Me

• Wage and Hour;
• Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation;
• Wrongful Termination;
• Personal Injury;
• Elder Abuse; and 
• Wrongful Death.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser - in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”  

The vast majority of civil cases should settle.  In fact, they should settle before the parties have wasted too much time and too much money. Don't get me wrong.  Some cases must go to trial.  I've always loved trying cases.  There isn't much more thrilling as a lawyer than trying a case to a jury when a person's life, or liberty are on the line.  But, most of our clients don't want to go to trial.  Trials are terrifying for our clients.  They're stressful for our clients.  We should avoid them, for our clients.  

My way of fixing problems is all about talking it out and finding real-life solutions. I seek to cut through the B.S., and get down to the nitty-gritty. I dig deep to figure out what everybody really wants and needs. Then, we roll up our sleeves and work together to find answers that make sense for everybody involved. I'm a big fan of mediation because it's not just about patching things up for now; it's about setting folks up for smoother sailing down the road.

I was born and raised in Salinas, California. I started my formal dispute resolution training in the sixth grade at San Benancio Middle School. That's when I was chosen as part of the school's inaugural class of Peer Assistant Leaders ("PALs"). The idea was simple: take class leaders, train them how to resolve disputes among their peers, and let middle schoolers resolve disputes for other middle schoolers. It did not go as expected.

Turns out most peer leaders couldn't resolve disputes. Those of us who could got called upon a lot. I was soon mediating multiple disputes each week, getting called out of homeroom, missing out on basketball at recess, and working through my lunches to help my classmates get past their conflicts. Emotions often ran high. But that's where I learned the importance of active listening, empathizing, compromising, and offering mutually agreeable solutions. That's also where my passion for dispute resolution began.

I've always wanted to help people; I just wasn't sure how. I headed off to UC Davis as Pre-Med. But I worked for a legendary Monterey County trial lawyer who showed me that law could be fun. I was in and out of courtrooms throughout college and ultimately decided on San Diego for law school.

While in law school, I had a knack for trial practice and was bored to death with corporations. I passed the Bar my first time out and moved back to the Central Coast. I worked at a firm that did general civil litigation and criminal defense. I worked on murder cases, wrongful death, personal injury, elder abuse, employment law, business disputes, and even the occasional dissolution of marriage. But I wanted to work on bigger and more important-seeming cases.

So, I ended up at a management-side labor and employment firm. It was an amazing experience. I was working on teams that were arguing things before the California Supreme Court. I was documenting ULPs on strike lines. I was arguing MSJ's and against motions for class certification. I was trying cases. I was arbitrating cases. I even called my boss as a witness and did a direct examination of him on the stand. That was one I will never forget. But I wanted another challenge.

So, my wife and I moved back to San Diego, and I hung out my shingle.  I took a few of my favorite small business clients with me, and brought on a few more, and developed a pretty successful plaintiff's practice before getting called back to mediation. It started small. Folks would ask me to speak at Bar Association events about how to get along with opposing counsel or about the importance of early resolution. Other folks would reach out and say, "I'm having this problem with an employee, can you come in and help?" or, "Hey, I've got this weird case with crazy opposing counsel. Think you can come in and settle it for me?" But it eventually turned into full-day mediations of litigated cases.

I've come a long way since PALs. I've since studied under some of the best mediators in the business. I've studied at Pepperdine Law's internationally recognized Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. My Grandma always said, "Peace at any price," and I'm proud to say I'm working toward that every single day. Most people seem to think that I've gotten pretty good at it too.

I hope I have the chance to help you resolve your dispute. You can check my availability below.