PHILOSOPHY
My vision is to consistently deliver an excellent client service from which I can build lasting relations. I believe that the attorney-client relationship should be one built on understanding and trust, from which you can feel assured and confident that I will always represent your interests to the very best of my ability.
BACKGROUND
I am a graduate of the University of San Francisco Law School, where I was a member of the of the McAuliff Honor Society, the University of San Francisco Law Review, the Moot Court Board and was selected to serve as a student law clerk for the Superior Court. After graduating, I was employed, at the authorization of the California Supreme Court, to assist the trial judge in the San Quentin Six case, then the most notorious and complicated criminal case in the United States. After a term as legal assistant to the the Superior Court in San Francisco, I worked as a government lawyer in Marin County.
In 1978 I founded the McGill Law Office. Since that time I have offered my clients highly personalized services whether in litigating their disputes, negotiating their transactions or giving them strategic advice. I hold my clients' satisfaction as the true measure of success and I am proud to have represented many clients who have been extremely happy with the results I have achieved for them.
NOTABLE CASES
The "Rub-a-dub-dub" San Quentin Escape Case
I prevented the State of California from convicting inmates who were accused of building a boat and escaping from San Quentin Prison by rowing it to freedom on San Francisco Bay.
Taking strategic initiative in the case and effectively arguing that, regardless of what the newspapers wrote, the prosecution had not proven its case with evidence in the courtroom, I persuaded juries in two separate trials not to convict. After that, the District Attorney gave up and dismissed the case.
Catastrophic Brain Injury - Alaska and Israel
When a foreign student suffered serious brain injury in Alaska, I sprang into action with Rod Sisson of the Sisson Law Group. We aggressively litigated the case.
After taking depositions in Alaska, we flew to Israel and took more than a dozen depositions covering the length of the country in just three days. This diligent and aggressive action resulted in the highest single-person mediation award that JAMS mediation service in Seattle had ever seen, providing just compensation for the client’s debilitating injuries and resources for the client to receive care for life.
Landslide and the cost of inaction - Northern California
Powerful Pacific storms tore away cliff-side land adjoining property owned by a not-for-profit corporate client located along the northern California coastline. The destructive nature of the storm exposed a two-inch diameter water pipe. The utility company that owned the pipe was notified but failed to take any action to rectify the risk posed by the pipe. The pipe subsequently broke and the water pressure carved more of the land from the cliff, sending the land 60 feet below into the Pacific Ocean.
Lawsuits were filed against the utility provider and the client’s insurer, but both refused to accept responsibility. Following my entry into the case, I pressured the parties into settlement negotiations and secured a very favorable outcome whereby his client received settlement funds equal to the market value of its property while also retaining the land and beautiful residence which had been placed at risk by the defectively placed utility pipe.