Contact Information
916.283.8820
jnevin@ecplslaw.comLaw School
McGeorge School of Law, 1983
University Scholarship Expertise
Civil Litigation in Matters of:
Unfair Trade Practices
AntitrustTrade Regulation
Products Liability
Intellectual Property
Civil RightsClass Actions
White Collar FeloniesRICOPersonal Injury
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Jeffrey G. Nevin
Mr. Nevin acts as "of counsel" with the Ellis Coleman firm on selected cases. Nonetheless, Mr. Nevin maintains his own separate firm, The Nevin Law Firm, located at 22 Battery Street, Suite 333, San Francisco, 94111, telephone (415) 392-5040. In his role as "of counsel" to Ellis Coleman, Mr. Nevin acts as an independent contractor, and not as an owner, partner or employee.
Practice Focus
Most of Mr. Nevin's career has been spent in the trial courts of San Francisco, Silicon Valley and numerous East Bay venues. His work has been featured on ABC's "20/20", the Wall Street Journal, KGO radio in San Francisco, and throughout the country on both the Associated Press and the United Press International. Mr. Nevin is perhaps best known as a highly skilled defense attorney. But he has been quite successful trying plaintiffs' cases. His last four plaintiff's verdicts were $1.8 million, $16 million, $3.2 million and $1.65 million. On the defense side, his last loss before a jury occurred in 1985.
Mr. Nevin was selected as a life member in the Million Dollar Advocate Forum, an elite association of lawyers with successive million dollar results. Every year he is nominated as one of the Northern California Super Lawyers published in the San Francisco Magazine. Martindale Hubbell has listed him as "Preeminent" in the field of civil trials.
Mr. Nevin's areas of practice include defending claims of unfair trade practices, antitrust and trade regulation, products liability, intellectual property (trademarks and copyrights), RICO and White Collar Felonies, railroad cases and catastrophic injuries. He also frequently prosecutes these types of cases. He is admitted to practice before all California courts; the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California; the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California; and the U.S. District Court, Central District of California and the United States Tax Court. He is a member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association and the Antitrust section of the State Bar of California. He is also a member of the Ninth Circuit Historical Society and the Defense Research Institute. |
He has written numerous articles having to do with strategic and procedural considerations that arise during jury trials. He is published in the field of utilizing expert witnesses in trial, the rules of evidence, and the anatomy of a jury trial in both state and federal court. Mr. Nevin volunteers his time to assist the local superior courts as a Judge Pro Tem, Court Appointed Mediator and acts as both a Discovery Referee and as a Special Master. Mr. Nevin has defended numerous people indicted by the federal grand jury in San Francisco. He has routinely opposed the United States Attorney's Office in these matters. Representative federal case types include armed bank robbery, interstate trafficking and international importation of narcotics, cultivation, tax fraud, counterfeiting, racketeering, money laundering and espionage. On the civil side, many of his federal cases have involved RICO, securities violations, antitrust, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, and patent infringement, federal civil rights, Lanham Act litigation, class actions, and Federal Employers Liability act prosecution. Mr. Nevin has litigated over 150 construction defect cases, dozens of railroad injury cases, and numerous personal injury cases.
Recently, Mr. Nevin favorably resolved a multi-count indictment brought in United States District Court in Maryland and Oakland by the Department of Justice against a local Afghan-American businessman. The government was seeking multiple life sentences based on its allegations that Mr. Nevin's client had funneled millions into a global heroin conspiracy. This, the government argued, supported terrorist activity in the Kandahar Pass in Afghanistan. The case was prosecuted with the assistance of Scotland Yard, the FBI and Homeland Security. All charges were dropped and Mr. Nevin's client pled guilty to transmitting money without a license.
Mr. Nevin will be collaborating with the State Bar of California's antitrust section in the publication of the 2007 treatise, California Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law (Fourth Edition).
Education
Mr. Nevin received an A.B. degree with Highest Honors from University of California, Berkeley in 1978. At Cal he won the Regent's Scholarship and the California State Scholarship. He graduated from the Rhetoric Department.
He received his law degree from McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, in 1983, where he was awarded the University Scholarship.
Reported Cases
Meyers v. Contra Costa Department of Social Service, 812 F.2d 1154 (9th Cir. 1986)
U.S. v. $84,740 in U.S. Currency, 900 F.2d 1402 (9th Cir. 1990)
Estate of Evonuick, 681 F.Supp. 662 (N.D. Cal. 1988)
McMorgan & Co. v. First California Mortgage Co., 913 F.Supp. 699 (N.D. Cal. 1996)
Bunch v. Hoffinger Industries, 123 Cal. App. 4th 1278 (2004)
Publications
"Avoid Getting Nailed in Court: Navigating Construction Defect Cases," Builder's Digest of Northern California, 1997
"Bad Faith Litigation in California," National Business Institute, 1998
"Evidence in Trial Practice," Lohrman Educational Services, 2002
"Getting Your Evidence and Experts Admitted in Trial," National Business Institute, 2005.
"Motion Practice in California," Lohrman Educational Services, 1999
The Trial Notebook, Co-editor, California Trial Lawyers Association, 1982.
The Postgraduate Course on Personal Injury, Co-editor, California Trial Lawyers Association, 1983
The Felony Benchbook; Prepared with Hon. William Jensen, for use in Solano County Superior Court felony matters, 1982.
Representative Trials
United States vs. Taylor (Federal Court, N.D. California, San Francisco, Judge Wolfgram, 1985): One of the first, if not the first criminal copyright infringement case brought by the Justice Department involving the infringement of computer software and patents. The Jury had to consider complex software programming issues, at a time when personal computers were not really a household commodity.
Susoeff vs. O'Donoghue Construction (State Court, San Francisco County, Judge Dandurand, 1992): Mr. Nevin defended a San Francisco construction company charged with committing accounting fraud and construction errors at a multi-project development on Protero Hill. The developer plaintiffs were seeking millions in damages. Mr. Nevin was called in on the eve of trial to defend the construction company, without the benefit of any pretrial discovery or any experts. Mr. Nevin then defended the accounting fraud and construction case in a jury trial that lasted most of the summer. The jury exonerated the construction company and actually awarded Mr. Nevin's client $300,000 in damages against the plaintiffs.
Wozniak vs Amalgamated Builders (State Court, Santa Clara County, Judge Rushing, 1996): Steve Wozniak, the founder of Apple Computer, sued the builders who had remodeled two of his homes in Los Gatos. He alleged accounting fraud and construction deficiencies relating to the $5,000,000 remodel of one of his homes. Mr. Wozniak had a penchant for making unusual remodel requests. These homes included stairways that opened up with hydraulic lifts to allow his children to play hide and seek, a swimming pool where children could swim under a wall in a pool that was both inside and outside the home, cement roller skating paths around the property, a cave with actual dinosaur footprints, stalagmites and underwater viewing rooms, not to mention a TV studio, voice recognition entrances to bedrooms that allowed the children to refuse to let a parent enter if the child so chose, and a home theater difficult to describe. No one on the jury was unfamiliar with Mr. Wozniak, as he was essentially a revered public figure in Silicon Valley. Nevertheless, he decided to settle before he had to testify. The settlement is confidential.
Burger vs. Katz (Federal Court, C.D. California, Los Angeles, Judge Lydick, 1985): Mr. Nevin successfully defended a world class bridge champion who had been accused of cheating during the World Championship of Bridge. Mr. Nevin managed to exclude all of the plaintiff's evidence and most of their witnesses, which led to a complete destruction of the plaintiff's case. Before judgment was entered, the plaintiff, a Manhattan lawyer, dropped his exaggerated demand and took $10,000.
Thornton vs. Prasad (State Court, Alameda County, Judge Brosnahan, 1998): A well known Berkeley night club was sued for damages arising out of the claimed "attack" on a patron who was thrown out of the club for throwing shot glasses at the bartender's head. He sought substantial damages for the emotional distress he felt when he was forcibly ejected. The jury returned a verdict for the defense, in Berkeley.
Bunch vs. Doughboy Pools (State Court, Glen County, Judge Harvey, 2001): A rural jury hearing the case in Orland returned a $16,000,000 verdict in favor of a young lady rendered a quadriplegic after diving into an above ground swimming pool. The case can be reviewed on the internet as it later was affirmed by a unanimous Court of Appeal. (Bunch v. Hoffinger Industries, 123 Cal. App. 4th 1278 (2004)) This appears to be the largest personal injury verdict north of Sacramento to the Oregon border. The published appellate decision solidifies the duty to warn children of dangerous products.
Computer Training Institute vs. American College International (State Court, Alameda County, Judge Spain, 2006): After nearly an entire summer in trial, a unanimous jury (12-0) found by clear and convincing evidence that the principal defendants had committed fraud and interfered with the business of Mr. Nevin's clients. The case was tried in two phases, and the aggregate amount of compensatory and punitive damages amounted to $5.3 million.
Samimi vs. Southern Pacific Railroad (State Court, Alameda County, Judge Dunbar, 1998): An Alameda County jury awarded Mr. Nevin's clients $1.8 million after finding Southern Pacific liable for not installing crossing gates at a high speed urban railroad crossing. The sixteen year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Samimi was killed as he was delivering pizza for his parent's pizza parlor. The case is unique in California because it was one of the few, if only, verdicts that compensated parents for the economic damages that they would have received from a minor. A cultural anthropologist testified that first born sons were expected to shelter their parents from the time the sons married until the death of the parents. This amount of support was calculated, discounted to present value, and the parents were awarded 100% of what they submitted to the jury.
Park Place Homeowners Association vs. Young America Homes (State Court, Sonoma County, Judge Sawyer, 1999): This massive construction defect case involved allegations of construction and architectural defects for 180 homes in Petaluma. The case was assigned to Judge Sawyer for trial and following pre-trial motions that cut deeply into the plaintiff's case, the plaintiff dropped their $18,000,000 demand and settled for the same amount that Mr. Nevin had offered a year before trial.
Bicunas vs. Bloom (State Court, San Mateo County, Judge Livermore, 1991): Called upon by Wells Fargo to defend the State of Israel, Mr. Nevin successfully terminated a claim by a Hillsborough thoracic surgeon who attempted to interfere with a major endowment to Israel from a well known Hillsborough philanthropist. As a result of the successful judgment, funds were released to Middle East charities in Israel.
In re American Home Products (Federal Court, S.D. New York, 1985): Mr. Nevin successfully extricated a local pharmaceutical concern from a nationwide antitrust and Lanham Act case being prosecuted out of federal court in Manhattan. Mr. Nevin's successful jurisdictional challenge terminated his client's legal involvement with a massive amount of litigation.
United States vs. Durazo (Federal Court, C.D. California, Los Angeles, 1985): Mr. Nevin was involved in extradition proceedings initiated by the Republic of Mexico to gain prosecutorial access to the former Chief of Police of Mexico City, General Durazo, who had been charged with receiving hundreds of millions in kick backs and bribes while acting as the Chief of Police.
Walker vs. Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures (Federal Court, N.D. California, San Francisco, Judge Susan Illiston, 2007): Mr. Nevin represents a cartoon artist who created Bob Spongee in 1991. Several years later, a children's television show called Sponge Bob appeared on the Nickelodeon channel. The similarities between the two characters are stunning. This case is just getting underway.
McComb vs ABC Carpet Company (State Court, San Francisco County, Judge Garcia, 1998): Mr. Nevin responded to a civil lawsuit for damages filed by a San Francisco woman who had a long record of filing frivolous lawsuits. His response was to file a motion to have her declared a "vexatious litigant." He was successful and for some reason, this case generated international attention. The French National Network, TFI, sent a film crew from Paris for an interview with Mr. Nevin. The feature was later shown throughout Europe as an example of the American legal system working.
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