Tales from the Trenches: Cautionary Tales to Help Clients Avoid Litigation Based on Your Drafting
Presented by North County Estate Planning Council - San Diego
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
7:15 AM - 9:00 AM
Speaker: Kristen Caverly of Henderson Caverly; Craig Gross of Goodwin Brown; and Judge David B. Moon
The NCEPC-SD is pleased to have San Diego’s Top Estate and Trust Tax Litigators and a retired Probate Court Judge and consultant, Kristen Caverly of Henderson Caverly Pum & Charney, Craig Gross of Goodwin, Brown, Gross & Lovelace and Judge David Moon of Judge David B. Moon, Private Dispute Resolution will present “Tales from the Trenches: Cautionary Tales to Help Clients Avoid Litigation Based on Your Drafting”
- “War Stories” to address drafting errors and ambiguities that required court
- Going to Court and the litigation process and why one would want to avoid putting your client there
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Options
The Bios of our Distinguished Presenters are below:
Kristen E. Caverly, is a Partner, Chair of Litigation Group and a founding partner of Henderson, Caverly, Pum & Charney LLP. Ms. Caverly provides advice, counsel and representation to Henderson, Caverly, Pum & Charney LLP clients in estate and trust controversies, probate matters, civil and commercial litigation, business disputes, and intellectual property litigation.
Ms. Caverly’s trial experience includes bench and jury trials. For example, Ms. Caverly has handled a breach of license trial resulting in judgment for the client of $174,900,000; a personal property valuation trial resulting in judgment for the client of more than $7,600,000; a breach of fiduciary duty trial resulting in judgment for the client of more than $1,000,000 plus injunctive relief; a breach of fiduciary duty trial resulting in defense verdict for the client; a breach of guarantee trial resulting in judgment for the client of more than $1,000,000; a prescriptive easement trial resulting in defense judgment for the client; and other successful outcomes for clients in numerous estate and trust controversies.
Ms. Caverly also handles appeals and is counsel of record in Sefton v. Sefton, 206 Cal. App. 4th 875 (2012); People ex rel. Herrera v. Stender, 212 Cal. App. 4th 614 (2012); and Mycogen Corp. v. Monsanto Co., 28 Cal. 4th 888 (2002).
Ms. Caverly is certified as a Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. Ms. Caverly is the author of “Representing the Beneficiary – Defining Client’s Goals and Managing Expectations” published as Chapter 1 of Hartog and Kovar, Matthew Bender Practice Guide: California Trust Litigation (2011), and “Help Clients Grant the Right Level of Trustee Discretion” published in the December 2012 issue of Estate Planning. Ms. Caverly has lectured on various estate administration and estate and trust litigation topics, including for ALI-ABA’s 2012 Estate Planning in Depth at the University of Wisconsin Law School, The Southern California Tax & Estate Planning Forum, the National Business Institute, San Diego Estate Planning Counsel, and Legal Secretaries, Incorporated. Ms. Caverly and partner Nancy G. Henderson co-authored the 2008 two-part article Planning for Family Vacation Homes, published in the California Trusts and Estates Quarterly, the Official Publication of the California State Bar Trusts and Estates Section.
Ms. Caverly has been recognized repeatedly as a California “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers® magazine in the area of estate and trust litigation and was chosen as one of the “Top Lawyers in San Diego” by San Diego Magazine for 2013. Ms. Caverly also has received the highest possible rating in both legal ability and ethical standards (“AV Preeminent”) from the Martindale Hubbell® peer review rating service and has been selected for the Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers.
Ms. Caverly obtained her law degree from the University Of San Diego School Of Law, where she graduated second in her class and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Ms. Caverly was Executive Editor of the San Diego Law Review from 1993 to 1994.
Ms. Caverly is admitted to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office; the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and for the Ninth Circuit, all California state courts; and the United States District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California. Kristen is a Member of the North Copunty Estate Planning Council- San Diego.
Prior to forming Henderson, Caverly, Pum & Charney LLP, Ms. Caverly was an attorney with the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP. Before attending law school, Ms. Caverly was a physical scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ninyo & Moore Environmental Consultants, and TorStan, Inc. Environmental Services. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Maryland.
Craig Gross, Partner at Goodwin, Brown, Gross & Lovelace is an AV© Preeminent©-rated attorney, Craig devotes his practice to probate and trust administration, Probate Court litigation, conservatorships and guardianships, and estate planning. Craig has also argued more than a dozen times before the California Courts of Appeal, including among his successes, Ike v. Doolittle (1998) 61 Cal.App.4th 5, a landmark case on the interpretation and reformation of trusts. Craig is a member of the Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law sections of the California State Bar and the San Diego County Bar Association.
Licenses and Education include: State Bar of California 1993; Juris Doctorate in 1993 from Hastings College of Law, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science 1990, from the University of California, San Diego.
Professional Memberships and Affiliations include State Bar of California
Member of the Executive Committee of the Trusts and Estates Section of the State Bar of California, San Diego County Bar Association, Member of the San Diego County Bar Association sections on Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law, Member of the State Bar Section on Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law and the North County Estate Planning Council- San Diego.
Recognition: Martindale-Hubbell, AV© Preeminent© rating. This rating reflects a determination the attorney so recognized has demonstrated the highest legal competence.
David B. Moon, Judge of the Superior Court, Retired, and Principal of his Private Dispute Resolution Firm is a noted jurist in the San Diego Superior Court in all departments, but especially in the Probate arena.
Judicial Experience and Training includes:
· Judge, San Diego Municipal Court, 1978-1982 (all departments, including Presiding Judge)
· Assigned Judge, Court of Appeal, 4th District, Division One, 1982
· Judge, San Diego Superior Court, 1983-2001 (all departments, including Supervising, Probate, and Independent Calendar assignments; committee assignments include Executive committee and alternative dispute resolution)
· Independent Alternative Dispute Resolution practice, July 2001-to present. Provides mediation, arbitration, settlement conference, discovery referee and related services in all areas of law.
ADR Training:
· Pepperdine College
· Advanced Mediation 2004
· Mediating the Litigated Case 2006
· Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative 2007
· Rapport International, Leadership One 2005
· American Arbitration Association
· Commercial Arbitration I 2002
· Commercial Arbitration II 2003
· Judicate West Neutrals Seminar 2008
National Judicial College:
· Graduate, Civil Mediation Course, 1997
· Instructor, Civil Mediation Course, 1999
Alternative Dispute Resolution Training:
AAA Chairing an Arbitration Panel: Managing Procedures, Process & Dynamics (ACE005), 2006; Mediating the Litigated Case, Pepperdine University School of Law, 2006; Advanced Mediation, Pepperdine University School of Law, 2005; AAA Commercial Arbitrator II Training: Advanced Case Management Issues, 2004; Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law, Advanced Mediation Skills Forum, 2004; Arbitrator Update 2004; AAA Arbitrator I Training-Fundamentals of the Arbitration Process, 2004; California Judges Association, ADR Practice, 2001, 2000; Judicial Counsel, Administering Court ADR Programs, 2000; National Judges College, Civil Mediation, Reno, NV, 1999, 1997; California Center for Judicial Education and Research, ADR Workshop, 1997.
Education and Professional Licenses include:
· Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1957-1960
· Stanford University, B.A., Political Science, 1964
· University of San Diego, School of Law, J.D., 1967
· Admitted to the Bar, California, 1968; U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, 1968
Judge Moon’s Legal Experience:
· United States Attorney's Office, San Diego, legal intern, 1965
· Miller and Evatt, legal intern, 1966-1967
· Brundage, Hackler, Williams and Zellmann, associate, 1968-1970 (labor law)
· Townsend and Moon, partner, 1970-1973 (domestic, criminal, corporate and probate)
· Bourne, McDade, Fitzgerald, Moon and Cline, partner, 1976-78 (criminal and civil litigation, labor law, domestic, business and probate)
· Law Offices of David B. Moon, Jr., sole practitioner, 1976-1978 (general civil litigation, construction law, real estate planning and development, general business law, criminal matters limited to felonies)
Professional Associations and Activities:
California Judges Association, committee member, various years relating to Programs, Education, Ethics, Criminal Law; American Inns of Court (North San Diego County Chapter, Founder and first President); Association of Business Trial Lawyers; San Diego County Bar Association; North County (San Diego) Bar Association; Association for Conflict Resolution. Activities include, Co-founder and first President, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Chapter, American Inns of Court (North County) Moderator, Bridging the Gap Programs (for new attorneys), San Diego and Vista Presenter/Speaker, various sections, Bar Association of Northern San Diego County.
Faculty/Lecturer/Instructor:
California Judicial Education and Research: Section/Discussion Leader, one-week induction course for new judges re: Evidence, Civil Practice, Probate, Adoptions
Continuing Education of the Bar: Evidence, Documentary and Demonstrative Evidence, Criminal Law Update, Criminal Law and Procedure, Ethics
California Judges Association: Ethics, Introduction to Computers
The Rutter Group: Probate
Continuing Legal Education: Eminent Domain
Right of Way Association: Eminent Domain, mock trials
San Diego Inn of Court: Civil Trials
Referral Organization:
Judge Moon is an Alternative Dispute Resolution provider. Judge Moon works exclusively through Judicate West; however he may be contacted directly at 858-759-6119 or by email. Counsel may reach Judicate West at 619-814-1966 and speak to Mark Kaufman or Megan Ko or visit www.judicatewest.org