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Jerry Falk is a senior member with the firm and a Certified Specialist in Appellate Law.

Following law school, he served as law clerk to Justice William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court of the United States. He then joined Howard Rice where he engages in civil trial and appellate litigation. From 1968 to 1978, he also taught constitutional law courses at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

His litigation practice includes substantial cases in the fields of securities, antitrust, contracts, real property sales and financing, insurance coverage, professional liability, environmental, intellectual property and constitutional law.

Representative clients in appellate matters include Autodesk, The Irvine Company, McKesson Corporation, Genentech, Inc., Toshiba, Inc., University of California, Citicorp Real Estate, Inc., Alcatel, City and County of San Francisco, The Oakland Raiders and the State of California. According to Judicial Council statistics, civil appeals result in reversals or modifications of the judgment in only 29% of the cases. But in appeals handled by Mr. Falk on behalf of an appellant challenging the judgment, the judgment was reversed or significantly reduced in 69% of the cases. And in appeals in which Mr. Falk represented a respondent defending the judgment, the judgment was only reversed in 13% of the cases.

He has been a frequent lecturer on continuing legal education programs for C.E.B., ALI-ABA, California Judges Association, The Rutter Group, Hastings College of Advocacy, Practicing Law Institute, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and other educational organizations on various topics including trial advocacy, appellate advocacy, constitutional law, writ practice and the law of evidence.

Education

  • J.D., University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (graduated first in his class; Officer, California Law Review; Order of the Coif), 1965
  • A.B., University of California, Berkeley (with honors, Economics), 1962

Admitted

  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • The California Supreme Court
  • Trial and Intermediate Appellate State and Federal Courts

Memberships

  • Bar Association of San Francisco, president, 1985
  • Association of Business Trial Lawyers of Northern California, president, 1993-94
  • California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, president, 1994-95
  • Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, lawyer representative,1983-85
  • Ninth Circuit Committee on Judicial Evaluation, member, 1980
  • KQED, Inc., Chair of the Board of Directors, 1999-2001
  • Berkeley Law Alumni Association, former president

Awards & Honors

For more than 25 years, Mr. Falk has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America, which currently lists him in the fields of Appellate Law, Bet-the-Company Litigation and Commercial Litigation. Most recently, he was selected as San Francisco Appellate Lawyer of the Year for 2010 by Best Lawyers. In 2008, he was selected as a "Top 100 Lawyer in California" by the Daily Journal. He has been listed in Chambers USA’s "America’s Leading Lawyers for Business" in the appellate area since 2007. He was recognized as a Top 100 Super Lawyer from 2004 through 2010 and was named a Top 10 Super Lawyer from 2007 through 2009. Mr. Falk was recognized by The Best of The U.S. for his commercial litigation work. In 1989, Mr. Falk was honored by the California Law Review as “Alumnus of the Year” and in 1994, he received the Distinguished Jurisprudence Award of the Anti-Defamation League. In 2005, he received The American Jewish Committee’s Learned Hand Award and also received the Boalt Hall Citation Award in 1996. He is an AV-rated attorney, a peer-awarded honor given by Martindale-Hubbell.