Key Personnel

Samuel Jackson - Managing Attorney, Civil Litigator

• Graduate of Columbia Law School
• 30 years of trial experience
• 25 years experience in civil litigation, including trials involving personal injury, products liability, employment matters and professional liability
• 100 + trials
• 300 + Depositions
• Significant experience with complex civil litigation
• Arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association Employment Panel since 1997
• Admitted to practice in California, U.S. District Courts for Central and Southern California, U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. Supreme Court

JoAnn Victor - Law and Motion/Discovery/Appeals

• Graduate of U.C.L.A. School of Law
• Advanced degrees in political science and in architecture and urban planning
• Four years experience as senior attorney with the California Court of Appeal, 2nd District
• Two years experience as assistant associate professor at Southwestern University School of Law teaching legal research and writing and lecturer in political science at CSULB since 1975
• Experience handling discovery in complex, document-intensive civil cases, including insurance and products liability case involving more than 100 plaintiffs
• Extensive law and motion experience in complex civil cases in both state and federal court
• Two eminent domain trials.
• Appellate work involving both procedural and substantive issues in state and federal court
• Admitted to practice in California, U.S. District Courts for the Central and Southern Districts of California and U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Of Counsel

David S. Cunningham III

• Graduate of New York University School of Law
• 19 Years trial experience
• 15 Years experience in civil litigation, including trials involving construction litigation related to the Metro Rail project for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, eminent domain proceedings on behalf of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency and the Irvine Company and administrative proceedings before various municipal boards and agencies
• Senior civil litigator with more than 25 trials and 150 depositions
• Served as Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Terry J. Hatter, Jr.
• Federal practice experience in several cases where the amount in controversy exceeded $1 million
• Experience with complex civil litigation
• Admitted to practice in California and New York
• Served as an Adjunct Professor at Loyola Law School for four years teaching trial advocacy and financial institutions
• Six years serving on the Board of Directors for the
  Los Angeles Urban League
• Currently, Police Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles

James W. Lewis

• Graduate of U.C.L.A. School of Law 1989
• 15 years of trial experience, including employment, products liability,
  personal injury and professional liability cases
• 150 Depositions
• Ph.D. in Psychology, 5 years lecturer at the University of California Los Angeles
• Experience developing complex civil cases for trial
  ¨ Experience with state and federal appeals
  ¨ Admitted to practice in California

Raphael B. Emanuel

• Graduate of Loyola Law School of Los Angeles
• Law and motion experience includes preparation of pleadings and motions in state and federal courts, involving matters of business, intellectual property, entertainment and employment law
• Trial experience, involving matters of employment law, breach of contract, quantum meruit and personal injury, including defamation and claims of emotional distress
• Handle court appearances and mediations
• Take and defend deposition; handle written discovery
• Appellate experience involving enforcement of settlement agreement
• Corporate and intellectual property law experience, includes preparation of filings with Secretary of State and Patent and Trademark Office, respectively
• One year served as intern to Screen Actors Guild Litigation Supervisor
• Admitted, State Bar of California

Karen W. Petek

• Recipient, American Jurisprudence Award in Legal Research and Writing; Legal Ethics.
• Staff Member, Southwestern Law Review
• Admitted to practice in all courts for the State of California and U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
• Experience in all aspects of discovery procedures and motions for summary judgment; Jury trial experience (2) in civil rights/tort litigation