Greene, K. (2016, November 17). Bloomingdale’s Can’t Overcome Iskanian To Force Arbitration. Law360.

Martin, C. (2016, November 6). A Lawyer With a Taste for Soy Sauce and a High Tolerance for Pain. New York Times. p. BU3.

Sebold, J. (2016, February 12). Aggressive Autonomy. San Francisco Daily Journal.

Recent Cornerstone Accomplishments

January, 2017. Renee Callantine spoke on “Torts Practice: 2016 Year in Review,” for Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) programs.

May, 2016. Renee Callantine spoke on “Insured’s Right to Independent Counsel: Conflicts of Interest, Multiple Insureds, Multiple Claims and More,” at a Strafford program.

April, 2016. Renee Callantine spoke on “Reservation of Rights for Casualty Claims,” at a Property Insurance Research Bureau (PLRB) program.

January, 2016. Gordon Renneisen represented women asserting tort claims against a manufacturer of transvaginal mesh medical products in an interpleader action brought by the manufacturer’s insurance company. He negotiated and obtained preliminary court approval of a class settlement requiring the insurance company to pay all remaining policy limits – approximately $12 million – to the tort claimants.

September, 2015. John Brown tried a case on behalf of two independent contractors seeking enforcement of oral, pre-incorporation agreements pursuant to which they were entitled to ownership interests in a local start-up company. After a bench trial, Mr. Brown obtained judgments in favor of the contractors – who collectively received a 10% ownership interest, resulting in a shift of control of the company.

July, 2015. Gordon Renneisen won an appellate victory for our client, the plaintiff, in Pinela v. Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. (2015) 238 Cal.App.4th 227 – a case addressing a motion to compel arbitration brought by the plaintiff’s former employer. Cornerstone obtained an order from the First Appellate District holding that the arbitration agreement at issue was both procedurally and substantively unconscionable; and affirming the trial court’s order denying the employer’s motion.

April, 2015. Harry Lewis and Paul Byrne successfully settled a disability-discrimination/retaliation/wage-and-hour case on behalf of our client, an employee whose employer claimed the employee was not terminated because of his disability.

February, 2015. Harry Lewis and Paul Byrne successfully settled an “on-call” wage-and-hour case pre-litigation on behalf of our clients, eight HVAC service people who regularly worked 24-hour on-call shifts without receiving pay.

January, 2015. Harry Lewis represented a bank client in an action against a borrower to collect on an SBA loan. After a five day jury trial, Cornerstone obtained a verdict in favor of our client, recovering the entire loan principal, interest and attorney’ fees.

October, 2014. Paul Byrne prevailed in a multi-million dollar court trial in a case in which our bank client was sued for wrongful foreclosure.