Who am I? Why do I do this? What are you getting when you hire me and my staff? Am I any good at this lawyer stuff? Will I win? Those are all good questions; and I even have answers for some of them.
I started the firm in the mid 1990’s after the Savings and Loan implosion killed commercial real estate for about five years.
In 1978, I got my California real estate license, and two years later, my broker’s license. In 1993, I was awarded the nationally recognized CCIM designation by the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute. In 1997, I was admitted to practice law in California and founded Hanson Law Firm. I started the Firm to defend real estate brokers, and it it still does. We sue them too.
But as the market changed, drastically, so did the Firm’s, and my, focus. When insurance carriers began making wholesale denials of claims made by my brokerage clients, I started suing the very carriers who were supposed to protect those brokerages. Successfully. Recent examples include a recovery of $1,000,000 for one brokerage client from a TOPA Insurance bad faith claim, and a second $625,000 settlement from Lloyds of London on behalf of a client of a brokerage. As defense counsel, I’ve had plaintiffs’ attorneys sanctioned over $13,000 for filing frivolous lawsuits against my clients.
I’m an experienced trial lawyer, not just a litigator. I’m not afraid of (and actually enjoy) being in a courtroom. I’ve been called ingenious, tenacious, and strategic. I’ll take those accolades.
To give you a sense of who I am, I’ll share these few insights and experiences. At 6, I taught myself how to ride a 2 wheel bicycle, by propping it up against the wall of the house and riding like hell down the driveway – praying I could make the corner onto the sidewalk and not go flying into the street. At 16, I learned how to SCUBA dive without knowing how to swim. At 32, I rode a motorcycle across the country for ten months, without ever having ridden before. At 34, I enrolled in a night time law school, and, while working full time, was still the editor in chief of the school’s law review; all with only one year of undergraduate credits to my name. Three years later, I started this law practice, which has grown to include additional attorneys, state wide, and has thrived for 15+ years. At 48, I decided sailboat racing was my next interest, so I crewed on several ocean races down the California coast. Recently, because I remain a confirmed power boater, I got my USCG 100 Ton Inland Master’s License, and, no, I’m not changing careers again to drive the Golden Gate Ferry.
And in 2015, I wrote my first book, titled “War Story Wednesdays: A Trial Lawyer’s Tales from the Trenches”, which went on to become a #1 Best Seller on Amazon. Because I teach real estate professionals a lot of CLE courses, I decided to incorporate the most important cases that have shaped how we practice real estate here in California into a book. And videos. Read, watch, and enjoy.
I simply don’t believe in the phrase: “You can’t do that.”
I’ve won cases I should have lost, and lost cases I should have won. I don’t give up. I don’t often give in. What I believe, more than anything else, is that if you’ve been wronged, you should be allowed to recover. If you hire me and my staff, you get our best effort. And, while that may not always be enough, it’s a lot. I’m happy to say that most of our clients have walked away from the gut wrenching experience of a lawsuit knowing and feeling that we’ve done our very best for them.
