County Home to Big Name Plaintiffs' Lawyers: Robinson, Aitken, Callahan

Orange County Business Journal, Jan 14-Jan 20, 2008 by Lee, Jessica C

Bisnar Chase LLP,

Newport Beach

Large automakers know Chase, who's made a name for himself by spearheading product liability suits.

Chase has gone after big names including the Big Three automakers: General Motors, Ford and what's now Chrysler LLC. A good chunk of his cases have resulted in confidential settlements.

Chase won settlements in an auto products liability suit against Ford and a rental car agency dial rented a 15-passenger van to a family traveling from California to Kansas.

The 15-passenger van's roof crashed and seat belts failed after the vehicle rolled over in an accident.

Another product liability case involved General Motors after the roof of a Chevy Tahoe crushed and killed the driver and passenger after rolling over.

Proving product liability cases have become increasingly difficult during the years.

"Jurors have become more skeptical of injury cases because of frivolous lawsuits, which makes it more difficult to prove serious cases," he said.

Filings for personal injury cases have decreased over the years as a result Chase said.

Thomas Cifarelli,

Partner,

Cifarelli Law Firm

Santa Ana

Child abuse victims tum to Cifarelli.

About 70% of Cifarelli's practice is dedicated to litigating cases on behalf of children who were neglected, abused or sexually abused. A good chunk of Cifarelli's clients are also adults who were victimized as children.

Cifarelli's claim to fame was a 2001 privacy rights lawsuit against Time Warner Inc. In the case, he represented a group of former Little League players, whose team photograph was used without permission in a Sports Illustrated article and on an episode of HBO's "Real Sports." The photo was used in a segment that talked about coaches who sexually molest kids.

Cifarelli also has represented a number of children and adults who've alleged that clergy members of the Los Angeles archdiocese have sexually abused them.

A lot of people ask Cifarelli if it ever gets emotionally difficult for him to represent abused children.

Cifarelli doesn't let the cases get to him, he said.

"These cases are serious and emotionally devastating for my clients, but I'm energized and honored to work for these kids. It's so great to work on a case where there's such a clear right and wrong," he said.

Other Notables

There's a few other prominent plaintiff lawyers here.

One is John Manly of Newport Beachbased Manly, McGuire & Stewart, which represents more than 100 children who were abused by priests and other adults.

Manly represented 25 of the 87 plaintiffs who won a $100 million settlement in 2005 against the Orange County Diocese.

Other notables include: Ramon Rossi Lopez of Newport Beach-based Lopez, Hodes, Res taino, Milman & Skikos; Federico Castelan Sayre of Santa Ana; Ronald B. Schwartz of Newport Beach; Cornelias "Neil" Bahan of Newport Beach's Cornelius P. Bahan Inc.; Marshall Silberberg of Newport Beach, Sean M. Burke of Newport Beach; Frank P. Barbaro of Santa Ana's Barbaro & Valentine; Gary Chambers of Santa Ana's Chambers, Noronha & Kubota; and John Adams of Santa Ana-based Hunt & Adams.