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Shayne L. Wulterin

Shayne L. Wulterin is an Equity Partner and trial attorney experienced in many areas of litigation and specializing in defense of automobile and general liability cases involving catastrophic injuries, professional liability, products liability, premises liability, motorcycle and trucking accidents, bad faith and suspect claims. He also has extensive experience defending construction defect lawsuits with special emphasis on the defense of high-profile construction companies. His clients include insurance firms, self-insured corporations, common carriers and public entities.

Mr. Wulterin is licensed in both California and Nevada representing numerous clients in both states. He founded the firm’s Nevada office in 2001. He has tried and arbitrated several cases to verdict in both Nevada and California, and mediated over 350 cases. He focuses on case preparation to limit unnecessary procedures, and is persistent in finding ways to protect his clients while minimizing their costs. He speaks frequently to insurance professionals on topics such as case handling, civil procedure, and litigation strategies.

Mr. Wulterin first became a partner with Ford, Walker, Haggerty & Behar in 1999 and has been with the firm since 1994. Since 2001, Mr. Wulterin has managed the firm’s Nevada’s office. He is admitted to practice before all Nevada and California state and federal courts. He is a member of Nevada’s Transitioning into Practice (TIP) program where he mentor’s young attorneys throughout Nevada providing guidance from firm practices and policies to litigation. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, and the Defense Research Institute.

Mr. Wulterin earned a J.D. in 1991 from Whittier College School of Law and a B.A. in economics and business from Westmont College in 1988, where he held a soccer scholarship and was honored as an NSCAA and Adidas Academic All-America. He was voted all league, district and region multiple years for his efforts on the soccer field.

Bar Admissions

Education

Mr. Paulson, an Equity Partner and a lead trial attorney at the firm, has defended and tried to verdict numerous 7 and 8 figure valued cases.Specializing in catastrophic injuries, including spinal and brain injuries, Mr. Paulson oversees every aspect of litigation through to trial.After passing the bar in 1996, Mr. Paulson started with FWHB in 2000 focusing his litigation skills on defending cases and understanding the current trends in personal injury cases, including unnecessary injection therapy (pain management), spinal surgeries (counterfeit surgical hardware), inflated lien procedure costs, and allegations of mild traumatic brain injuries.

Although Mr. Paulson is ready to try any case, he understands the careful balance between risk analysis and cost effective litigation in defending high exposure cases.

Bar Admissions

Education

Charlie Schmitt, a partner and litigator, focuses on landslide litigation, common homeowners liability, premises liability, construction defect, municipal liability including inverse condemnation actions throughout California involving municipal water and drainage facilities, road related construction and slope construction and maintenance practices. He has litigated Elder Abuse cases.

He represents commercial and private property owners, small businesses and small construction subcontractors. His successes for clients include defense trial verdicts in civil assault and battery cases, product liability actions, as well as defense verdicts for common carriers. He also has experience in mediation of multi-party, multi-insurance carrier litigation.

Mr. Schmitt’s professional memberships include the American Bar Association, the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, and the Defense Research Institute..

Bar Admissions

Education

Jon A. Hammerbeck has been a member of the firm since October of 2000, and has been a partner since 2006.His practice includes construction, tort, real property, and mediation matters.

Mr. Hammerbeck is a member of the mediation panel for San Diego Superior Court, an active member of the Defense Research Institute (DRI) Construction Law committee and DRI Construction Law Steering Committee.He is also chair of the Construction Community Group.He has published multiple articles in DRI publications, including articles on expert witness practice, trends in construction law, green building litigation and elder abuse arbitration issues. He has been a presenter at conferences and seminars held by Associated Defense Counsel of Southern California, Beverly Hills Bar Association, Associated Claims Conference, and DRI.

Mr. Hammerbeck has a variety of cited appellate cases where he was appellate counsel of record which include: Nally v. Grace Community Church – 47 Cal.3d 278 (1988), Stein-Brief Group, Inc. v. Home Indemnity Co. – 65 Cal.App.4th 364 (1998), Aero-Crete, Inc. v. Superior Court – 21 Cal.App.4th 203 (1993), Avila v. Standard Oil Co. – 167 Cal.App.3d 441 (1985), and Bolamperti v. Larco Manufacturing – 164 Cal.App.3d 249 (1985).

Bar Admissions

Education

William O. Woodland, a partner and trial lawyer who focuses on general liability, automobile litigation, homeowners liability, and premises liability. In the past he has represented numerous agencies, insurance companies, construction developers, and entertainment companies.  In addition Mr. Woodland has represented cities, counties, and governmental agencies, including the Metropolitan Transit Board (MTA)  in defense of Tort and Civil Rights claims.

His successes for clients include, defense verdicts in civil trials and multiple arbitrations. He has extensive experience in mediation of multiparty and multi-insurance carrier litigation. He began his career with the firm John Hill and Associates where he worked the next seven years ultimately joining Ford, Walker, Haggerty & Behar in early 2002.  Mr. Woodland spent six years as an at large committee member for the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel (ASCDC) presenting at its annual conventions on subjects including Code of Civil Procedure 998 statutory offers to compromise, and litigation strategy.

Bar Admissions

Education

Sean Gandhi is a partner at the firm and practices all forms of general liability litigation, including premises liability, workplace accidents, automobile/trucking accidents, personal injury defense, business/contract disputes, transactional matters, and construction defects. He defends corporations, individuals, general contractors, developers, and subcontractors. In addition to a trial practice, he has achieved numerous favorable results through various forms of alternative dispute resolution.

During law school, Mr. Gandhi clerked for the California Attorney General’s office researching and writing criminal appellate briefs, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office where he conducted numerous felony preliminary hearings. In addition he was an extern for two civil judges in Los Angeles County Superior Court where he evaluated law and motions briefs and researched and wrote opinion letters.

Bar Admissions

Education

Mr. Patel is partner and trial lawyer who has represented clients in wide range of practice areas including insurance bad faith cases to verdict, class action habitability claims, mass tort / smoke damage claims, municipal liability, and numerous inverse condemnation actions involving State and Federal issues. He also handles catastrophic injury claims. wrongful death, elder abuse, civil rights, premises, products liability actions and subrogation.

He represents individuals, commercial and private property owners and small businesses. Mr. Patel has successfully represented clients through various stages of litigation including defense jury verdicts, arbitrations and mediation of complex, multi-party claims.

He and his wife, Dr. Mini Mehra, and children, Riya, Arjun and Rohan live in Manhattan Beach.

Bar Admissions

Education

Stacy Bradfield is a Partner and trial attorney with the firm. Her practice area is concentrated in high-exposure cases involving insurance bad faith litigation, product liability, premises liability, automobile and common carrier liability, general liability and professional liability. Her clients include insurance companies, corporations, municipalities and other self-insureds  Mrs. Bradfield has successfully tried numerous significant exposure cases and has extensive experience with court ordered and binding arbitrations and mediations.

Mrs. Bradfield also heads the firm’s complex motion and appellate division along with the firm’s insurance coverage department. Her work includes declaratory relief actions, coverage opinions and insurance contract interpretation.

Mrs. Bradfield’s previous career experience includes real estate litigation at a South Orange County firm.  Prior to her legal career, Mrs. Bradfield was a Press Secretary for several county, state and federal legislators.  She was the California volunteer coordinator for a presidential candidate in 1996.

Mrs. Bradfield graduated from Whittier Law School where she earned American Jurisprudence awards in legal writing and advanced legal writing.  She was a legal writing teaching assistant, a research assistant researching such issues as the California and Federal Patient’s Bill of Rights and HMO malpractice, and a law review candidate.

She is a member of the American Bar Association, Los Angeles Bar Association, Association of Southern California Defense Counsel and Defense Research Institute.

Bar Admissions

Education

Jennifer L. Russell is a senior litigation partner and lead trial attorney with the firm. She has successfully tried many cases with significant exposure. Her practice area is defending personal injury cases involving automobile and common carrier liability, premises liability, public liability, and general liability for insurance companies, public agencies and private businesses. Ms. Russell has handled hundreds of cases to successful conclusion through mediations, arbitrations and trials.

In 2015, she was inducted into the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and the majority of her trials have ended in defense verdicts in which our clients were awarded costs. In 2019, she tried and prevailed in 7 trials including a defense verdict in a very contentious wrongful death case in which plaintiff demanded 100 million dollars. Ms. Russell was also nominated and selected as a Fellow to The Litigation Counsel of America (LCA), an honorary society composed of less than one percent of American Lawyers.

In addition to complex cases involving catastrophic injuries and wrongful death, she has extensive experience in handling fraudulent suspect claims. She has worked closely with specialized organizations and experts and spoken at seminars regarding the defense of suspect claims to other attorneys and claims personnel.

Ms. Russell is also vested in mentoring new attorneys and women in the legal profession. She has been invited to speak at the Association of Southern California Defense Council (ASCDC) seminars and to help teach other attorneys critical trial skills in the ABOTA “Masters of Trial” program”.

Ms. Russell’s professional memberships include the American Bar Association, the Orange County Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute and the ASCDC. Prior legal experience includes working at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. While in law school Ms. Russell served as a law review editor and received several American Jurisprudence Awards and a CALI Excellence Awards.

In 2021, Ms. Russell was invited to join the Orange County Executive Committee Board of ABOTA and she will eventually go on to be president of the chapter. She was named Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2022 for the OC chapter of ABOTA.

Bar Admissions

Education

Armen A. Avakian is a partner who joined the firm in 2006. He specializes in all aspects of civil litigation involving automobile claims and claims against homeowners, including but not limited to, premises liability, dog bites, landslide/earth movement, breach of contract, and general negligence throughout Southern California. While at FWHB, Mr. Avakian has mediated well over 150 cases, and has successfully tried several cases to verdict. He is a member of the Los Angeles and Orange County Bar Associations and the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel (ASCDC).

Bar Admissions

Education