Kevin K. Cholakian was a director/shareholder at a well known, AV rated, 25 attorney San Francisco insurance defense firm, which he left in December 1999 after 12 years as managing partner of the firm's defense practice, bringing that practice to Cholakian & Associates, which he began in January 2000.
Cholakian & Associates, a 9 attorney civil defense firm, is listed in Best's Insurance Directory, is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and is retained defense counsel to a dozen major insurance companies doing business in California. This practice includes, though it is not limited to, the representation of clients regarding commercial and personal lines claims as well as the defense of insureds involved in serious catastrophic vehicle litigation, complex commercial/environmental litigation, product liability/fire liability and subrogation matters, ADA litigation, employment and coverage litigation. This also includes defense of matters involving allegations of construction defect, mold related claims, inter and intrastate trucking, commercial landlord/tenant, environmental liability, professional liability, including insurance agents, labor and employment law, first party coverage and claims matters. The attorneys in this practice group have significant litigation experience, with emphasis on high exposure cases.
Cholakian & Associates' principal office is in the San Francisco Bay Area. The firm also has offices in Sacramento and Fresno.
The following is a brief summary of the careers of the firm's partner and associates.
PARTNER
Kevin K. Cholakian attended North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina his senior year of high school 1971-72 on a full scholarship. Mr. Cholakian then attended San Francisco Conservatory of Music on a Ford Foundation Scholarship from 1972-1973. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Philosophy from California State University in 1977. From 1976 to 1978, he served as Chief Administrative Assistant to California State Senator Rose Ann Vuich (the first woman elected to the California State Senate), wherein he was responsible for the Central California field offices and Sacramento legislative office.
He received his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1981. At Hastings, he was Executive Editor of the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal and was a law review scholarship recipient.
Mr. Cholakian began his legal career as an employment and product liability defense lawyer, practicing with the litigation sections of the management employment law firm of Littler, Mendelson, Fastiff & Tichy (1981-1983) and the product liability section of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen (now McCutchen Bingham) in San Francisco (1983-1987), and managed the defense practice at Kinder, Wuerfel & Cholakian (1988 through 1999), a 25 attorney insurance defense firm in San Francisco. Mr. Cholakian has successfully defended approximately 20 jury trials, each with an exposure in excess of $100,000, and is regularly asked to defend cases that have exposures in excess of $1,000,000.00. He has never lost a jury trial. His first trial as an attorney was venued in Santa Clara County that resulted in a $1.1 million dollar verdict in favor of his client AIG (product liability theory). Although almost exclusively representing defendants in civil litigation over the years, he tried, at the request of a colleague in 1994, Crow v. State of California, a 9 week Alameda Superior Court trial in which the jury awarded his client, Mr. Crow, a $6.5 million dollar verdict, thought to be the largest personal injury verdict in Alameda County by a non plaintiff attorney in the last 20 years. It was a pedestrian/vehicle accident. Mr. Cholakian, on behalf of his insurance clients, has also recovered in excess of 10 million dollars in subrogation recoveries, based primarily on product liability issues. Aside from the rare plaintiff case where no insurance carrier is a defendant (other than subrogation), Mr. Cholakian specializes primarily in high exposure personal injury/truck defense, Uninsured/Underinsured motorist product liability/fire subrogation matters, construction defect, insurance coverage and employment/housing discrimination matters. Mr. Cholakian also specializes in the defense of environmental, governmental entity defense and ADA litigation. He has successfully defended Clint Eastwood the Mission Ranch and other high profile clients. He has successfully defended numerous well established restaurants and businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area against ADA accessibility claims.
In 2006, Mr. Cholakian was the proud recipient of Farmers/Zurich Commercial Claims "Gladiator of the Year" award. The Gladiator of the Year award is presented annually by Farmers/Zurich in recognition of outstanding trial results to its top trial attorney in California. He has twice been a panelist speaker at the NASP National Convention, speaking on product liability issues affecting subrogation recoveries in motor vehicle cases.
Mr. Cholakian is a member of the following organizations: Defense Research Institute (DRI), the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), the Northern California Association of Defense Counsel, the American Bar Association, the San Mateo Bar Association, the Bar Association of San Francisco, the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, the California Trial Lawyers Association, Co-Chair of the Northern California Chapter of National Association of Subrogation Professionals 2004-2006 (NASP), and Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA).
Mr. Cholakian is in his 7th term as President of the Defense Seminar Association, a 40 year old Bay Area defense attorney organization comprised of civil defense litigators. Mr. Cholakian sits on the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the City Club of San Francisco and on the Parish Counsel of St. John's Church in San Francisco.
OF COUNSEL
Lin L. Duiven received her B.A. degree in French from the University of Michigan in 1963 and her J.D. cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1991. She received the American Jurisprudence Award in Insurance Law. Ms. Duiven's practice focuses on product liability, first party claims, wrongful eviction and habitability claims. Her trial experience includes personal injury, employment/age discrimination, and wrongful eviction/discrimination cases in Superior Court and Federal Courts in Northern California. She has assisted Mr. Cholakian in numerous trials in the Bay Area. Her principal practice at this time is defending commercial housing litigation and ADA cases. One of her daughters is a Boalt Hall graduate and chief prosecutor for the City of Federal Way, a suburb of Seattle.
ASSOCIATES
James Patrick Downs graduated from San Francisco State University with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science. He received his JD from the University Of San Francisco School Of Law. Mr. Downs specializes in insurance defense, including catastrophic injury cases, toxic tort, construction defect, and motor vehicle accident cases.
Colin R. Hatcher graduated from London University in London, U.K., with a Bachelor's Degree (BA with Honors), receiving a Double First Class Honors awarded for English/Drama. He received his J.D. from Santa Clara Law School with honors in 2001.
Mr. Hatcher specializes in insurance defense, contract litigation, product liability, personal injury litigation, civil litigation, intentional torts, landlord/tenant, premises liability, products liability, and medical malpractice with experience in jury trial to verdict.
Courtney M. King graduated from California Polytechnic State University in 1998 with a B.A., Cum Laude, in Political Science where she was a Golden Key National Honor Society member. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2002, graduating at the top 33% of her class. While at Hastings, she received the Witkin Award for Academic Excellence, Legal Writing and Research, and CALI Excellence for the Future Award, Legal Writing and Research. Ms. King has experience handling all aspects of civil litigation in the areas of product liability, wrongful death, products liability, construction defect, landlord/tenant matters and employment law.
Lauren Koblitz graduated from The George Washington University in 2002 with a B.A. is Criminal Justice and received her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School. While at Suffolk Law, she was a student attorney for the Harvard University Law School, Tenant Advocacy Project and the Suffolk County District Attorney?s Office. She was also a participant on the Suffolk National Moot Court Team. Ms. Koblitz has experience handling all aspects of civil litigation in the areas of personal injury, wrongful death, landlord/tenant matters and product liability.
Vivian L. Lerche graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a B.A. in Social Science and received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco in 1990. She was a member of the University of San Francisco Law Review. Ms. Lerche handles all aspects of civil litigation in the areas of personal injury, product and premises liability, landlord/tenant disputes, professional liability and insurance coverage.
Richard K. Lin graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003 with a B.A. in History and received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. While at Hastings, he externed for the Honorable Joyce L. Kennard, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. He was also an Articles Editor for the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review and served as a teaching assistant in the Legal Writing and Research program. Mr. Lin has experience handling all aspects of civil litigation in the areas of employment law, products liability, construction defects, landlord/tenant matters, and personal injury.
David W. Tate received his J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1987. Mr. Tate specializes in insurance defense, property and casualty, FEHA and ADA, business, personal injury, real property, product liability, professional liability, and trust/estate litigation. Mr. Tate also provides services as a mediator, and is a member of the Probate mediation panel with the Superior Court, County of San Mateo.
Mr. Tate is also a Certified Public Accountant, has served as the Audit Committee Chair of the YMCA of Santa Clara Valley, and has authored numerous articles and other materials on employer employment practices, audit committees, nursing homes, and trusts, estates and elder law.
PARALEGAL
Deborah Hatcher received her B.S. in Business Administration with a minor in Mathematics from Northeastern State University in 1999. From 2000-2006 she worked at Bay Associates, as an expediter, scheduler and production control manager. She has completed two years of law school.
Alexis R. Winters graduated with honors from Notre Dame de Namur University ('03) with a B.S. in finance and marketing. Ms. Winters worked as a corporate trainer at a software company while working on her MBA at NDNU and her J.D. at Abraham Lincoln University.
While completing her degrees she worked in the areas of criminal defense and commercial real estate law. She is a former Art Commissioner for the city of South San Francisco and a member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
