Legal Malpractice Attorney, California Legal Malpractice Lawyer, Gwire Law Offices

For the past two decades, Gwire Law Offices has committed itself to outstanding representation in the field of legal malpractice. Starting from the moment the case comes into the office, the attorneys follow a team approach that combines and integrates all the skills that make for great lawyering. The hallmark of the firm is the depth and diversity of the experience of the lawyers, all important for legal malpractice cases where proving the “underlying case” is often critical to success. Of the six attorneys in the firm, five have more than 15 years of experience as a lawyer. Unlike other firms where cases are brought in by a senior partner and shuffled off for handling by a junior and inexperienced associate, all cases within the office are handled by Mr. Gwire and a senior attorney.

The array of practice areas in which GLO attorneys have worked professionally includes intellectual property (trade secrets, copyright and patent cases), corporate and business transactions (including M & A work, partnership and shareholder disputes, corporate governance issues and business transactional work), personal injury and consumer related actions (including motor vehicle, product and premises liability, medical malpractice and consumer fraud), construction and real estate transactions and litigation, estate planning, wills and trusts and selected cases in other fields.

William Gwire has over 30 years of trial experience and has focused on the legal malpractice area since 1989, when he left the large firm where he was a senior litigation partner. Mr. Gwire was troubled by what he saw happen in the legal profession since he became a lawyer. Motivated by a desire to assist clients who were wronged by their lawyers, he opened his own legal malpractice firm in San Francisco, providing high caliber representation to client-plaintiffs. From the one man shop opened in 1989, to the six lawyer firm that is GLO today, Mr. Gwire has tried to judgment, arbitrated and settled cases with a combined value to clients of over $25,000,000. For a detailed description of some recent and noteworthy cases handled see the website page “Recent Cases”.

In an independent poll of attorneys throughout California, Mr. Gwire was identified in California Lawyer (the official publication of the State Bar) as one of only a handful of “go to” plaintiff’s legal malpractice lawyers in California. He has been selected by Worth Magazine as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in the United States (2006-2008), and the only listed attorney handling plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases. He has also been selected as a Northern California SuperLawyer for 2005-2008. For the last twelve years, the firm has held the coveted AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating given in the categories of ethics and ability and Mr. Gwire and the firm are listed in the Bar Registry of Preeminent Lawyers.

In 1996, in Michigan State Court, Mr. Gwire tried to judgment what is believed to be the largest legal fee dispute in history, the $100,000,000 dispute between Dow Corning Corporation and a consortium of insurance companies arising out of the breast implant litigation. Mr. Gwire, representing the insurance companies, achieved a $13,700,000 reduction in the attorney fee claim.

Mr. Gwire has lectured before Bar Associations, client groups, and professional and industry associations in the United States, Europe and Asia on the subjects of legal malpractice, attorney ethics and legal fee matters. He has also written extensively on the subject, with his articles appearing in national business and legal journals and periodicals. He organized, moderated and was a speaker at the full day seminars entitled, "Controlling Your Outside Legal Costs", presented to corporate counsel in the United States, Great Britain and Hong Kong. He has been a speaker at numerous seminars and programs on issues related to attorney conduct matters and has been retained as an expert witness on numerous fee dispute and legal malpractice cases.

He donates a significant amount of time doing pro bono work and has been an arbitrator and/or mediator on dozens of attorney conduct disputes for the State Bar of California and the San Francisco Bar Association as well as on private mediations. Prior to his devoting his practice to the attorney conduct field, Mr. Gwire had extensive experience in business litigation, including matters in the fields of real estate, securities, corporate, employment, partnership, construction, contract, insurance and intellectual property.

He is a member of the State Bar of California, American Bar Association, San Francisco Bar Association, Association of Professional Responsibility Attorneys, The International Bar Association, a Fellow with the Center for International Studies and acts from time to time as a Fee Dispute Arbitrator for the State Bar of California and San Francisco Bar Association.

Mr. Gwire served in the United States Air Force from 1966-1970 in Air Rescue and Recovery squadrons in the Azores, Portugal, and taught rescue and survival to pilots going to Vietnam. He is an honors graduate of Boise State University (1971) and graduated in the top 10% of his class from Golden Gate University School of Law in 1974.

For the past two decades, Bruce Glassner has fought for the rights of the victims of negligence, professional malpractice, governmental misconduct, and dangerous products. He earned his B.A. from the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor in Philosophy and Psychology, and his J.D. from American University in Washington, D.C. For 12 years, he practiced law in his home state of New Jersey, representing victims of medical malpractice, dangerous products, civil rights violations, and catastrophic personal injury.

In 2002, Bruce moved his practice to California. As a Senior Litigation Attorney with Gwire Law Offices, he represents victims of legal malpractice and fraud and handles most of the cases involving personal injury and other tort-based legal malpractice cases. Bruce is an accomplished litigator with superior skills in incisive investigation, focused discovery, definitive research, and polished writing. He has a reputation for excellent, efficient, and persuasive work-product. He has extensive experience with Courts of Appeals on both coasts.

Bruce is an Adjunct Professor of Law, teaching legal writing and research at Golden Gate University School of Law. He also holds Certificates in Graphic Design from Parsons School of Design/New York and University of California/Santa Barbara. Bruce loves to travel, and has lectured on the law in such places as Peru, China, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Kenya, Tanzania, and Thailand.

Tom Kawaii handles legal malpractice matters arising from complex business litigation and sophisticated business transactions. He has extensive experience in a broad spectrum of business litigation practice areas, mostly in hard-fought, large-scale cases. Tom has unique and diverse experiences in the law having been associated with both large and small firms and having been outside and in-house counsel for small start-ups and major multi-nationals.

Coincidentally, Tom and Bill Gwire first crossed paths in 1992 on opposite sides of a case and walked away from that experience with a great deal of respect for each other. Fifteen years later, Tom joined Gwire Law Offices, where his passion for vindicating principles and standing up for the underdog prompted him to join the firm. In his very first year with the firm, Tom’s savvy and tenacity were instrumental in the firm’s successes in a string of three major cases that resulted in recoveries totaling over $7.2 million.

Tom earned his Juris Doctor degree from the School of Law of the University of California at Davis in 1991, and was admitted to the California Bar that same year. He is qualified as a solicitor (lawyer) in England and Wales. He also holds B.A. degrees in Rhetoric and in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley, as well as an MSc in Management (MBA) from the University of London at the London Business School, where he was an Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Fellow pursuing studies in entrepreneurship, venture capital and e-commerce. His published appellate cases include Amalgamated Bank v. Superior Court (Corinthian Homes), 149 Cal.App.4th 1003 (2007), and In re Geothermal Resources International, Inc., 93 F.3d 648 (9th Cir. 1996).

Tia Pollastrini is a veteran litigator with over 20 years experience. She is a former Alameda County Deputy District Attorney, but has devoted herself to the legal malpractice field since joining Gwire Law Offices in 1990. After completing a master's degree, Tia received her Juris Doctrate with honors from USF in 1986. Since winning the Best Brief Award in the USF Moot Court Competition in 1985 and three AmJur Awards for academic excellence, she has continued to develop exceptional research skills and writing expertise. Tia also has considerable appellate experience, both in written and oral argument before the California Courts of Appeals.

She is a world-traveler and adventurer. She has lived among Dani tribesmen in Irian Jaya, studied ceremonial dance in Papua New Guinea, rafted white water in Borneo, and trekked across Burma, Thailand, Guatemala, Turkey and India. In quieter moments, she enjoys Italian food.

ANDREA ROSENTHAL

Andrea Rosenthal, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, obtained her Bachelor of Science in Economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. In 1991, she earned her law degree from the University of San Francisco where she graduated in the top 5% of her class with the honor of magna cum laude and received recognition for the highest academic performance in several classes. Andrea was also a member of the University of San Francisco Law Review, where she authored “People v. Patterson: Changing the Second Degree Felony-Murder Doctrine,” which received recognition in The National Law Journal, Criminal Law and Procedure “Worth Reading” Section.

Since her admission to the California Bar in 1991, Andrea has practiced general commercial and business litigation with some of the largest California law firms where she developed her litigation skills and had the opportunity to work in a wide variety of practice areas, including unfair competition, environmental, employment and personal injury, although her most extensive experience has been in real estate law and litigation. She has represented plaintiffs and defendants ranging from Fortune 500 companies to individuals in a variety of matters and forums.

When she’s not vigorously fighting for the firm’s clients, Andrea spends time volunteering at a local animal shelter and tutoring underprivileged children. Andrea’s hobbies include scuba diving and sailing.

Ujvala Singh proudly holds multiple degrees in a variety of fields. She obtained her International Baccalaureate diploma from Kodaikanal International School in India. She then moved to the United States, where she obtained a B.A., and M.A. in Comparative Literature at University of Wisconsin/Madison. Ujvala earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy, at UW-Madison. Her Ph.D. dissertation, "Art, Life & the Tragic Philosopher," is an analysis of the works of Nietzsche. Ujvala then obtained her Juris Doctor from Vermont Law School, emphasizing where she served as a member of the Moot Court Advisory Board, and as a legal research assistant in Civil Rights and Ethics for two of her professors. During law school, Ujvala interned for judges at the U.S. District Court in Arizona and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Mexico.

Since law school, Ujvala has provided her exemplary research skills to Gwire Law Offices, serving as a key part of the research backbone for the firm. She was admitted to the California Bar in 2008.

Ujvala is fluent in English, Telugu, and Hindi, and has a reading knowledge of French, German, and Classical Greek. She is widely published in various peer-reviewed journals on a wide range of topics and also enjoys outdoor sports, yoga, and Capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian martial art).