Attorneys
Kevin K. Cholakian was a director/shareholder at a well known, AV rated, 25 attorney San Francisco insurance bad faith and liability defense firm, which he left in December 1999 after 12 years as managing partner of the firm’s liability defense practice, bringing his practice to Cholakian & Associates, which he began in January 2000.
Cholakian & Associates, a 10 attorney civil defense firm, is listed in Best’s Insurance Directory, has been AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell since inception, and is retained to represent small businesses and individuals named as defendants in claims of serious exposure to those businesses and individuals, as well as providing governmental defense to Bay Area municipalities and counties. This practice primarily involves the representation of clients regarding commercial and personal lines claims as well as the defense of insureds involved in serious catastrophic injury litigation, complex commercial/environmental litigation, product liability/fire liability and subrogation matters, ADA litigation, employment, governmental defense 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 San Francisco. The firm also has offices in Sacramento and Fresno.
The following is a brief summary of the careers of the firm's attorneys.
Partner:
Kevin K. Cholakian
Special Counsel:
Colin R. Hatcher | Jennifer A. Kung
Senior Trial Counsel:
Robert M. Pave
Attorneys:
Lisa A. Costello | Jeremy M. Jessup | Colin H. Jewell | Brian J. Finn
Paralegals:
Deborah Hatcher
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; 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) both in San Francisco (1983-1987), managed the defense practice at Kinder, Wuerfel & Cholakian (1988 through 1999) 25 attorney insurance defense firm in San Francisco.
Mr. Cholakian has successfully defended approximately 40 major jury trials, the majority of which having exposures in excess of $100,000, and is regularly asked to defend cases that have exposures in excess of $1,000,000.00. His first trial as an attorney was venued in Santa Clara County LSI Logic v. Ultratech Stepper that resulted in a $1.1 million dollar verdict in favor of his client LSI and its carrier AIG (product liability theory).
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 has tried 10 major wrongful death cases to defense verdict. Mr. Cholakian also specializes in the defense of environmental, governmental entity defense and ADA litigation. He has successfully defended Clint Eastwood the Mission Ranch, the San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Marin Housing Authorities, and other well established restaurants and businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area against ADA accessibility claims. He regularly defends and has successfully defended at trial 5 habitability/mold cases brought against small building owners, (4 in San Francisco Superior Court) recovering in 4 instances large fee awards back to his clients.
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 at that time to be the largest personal injury verdict in Alameda County by a non plaintiff attorney in the last 20 years.
Cholakian and Associates also serves as lead defense trial counsel for San Francisco, San Mateo, Oakland, Santa Clara Housing Authorities and also through their National carrier HAARG, defending these governmental entities in their catastrophic premises, employment and ADA cases.
Mr. Cholakian also regularly defends high exposure UM/UIM matters, having successfully defended a $5,000,000 excess UM claim for State Farm that resulted in a reconstruction of the accident 4 hours outside of Calcutta that he supervised on what was known as the “Highway of Death” and included depositions in India’s High Court in Calcutta, India.
Mr. Cholakian has also defended major construction site accident cases, has defended Great America Amusement Park in a highly publicized wrongful death case in 1989, has taken expert and lay witness depositions in Europe, Asia, and South America including another high exposure motor vehicle case (Prince Diana’s former surgeon was video deposed in London); 8 witness depositions in Calcutta, India; (catastrophic San Francisco construction site accident trial) 3 medical expert depositions in Cork, Ireland; (Military accident case) Hamburg, Germany; and (major San Francisco cable car catastrophic injury case) Schweinfurt, Germany (2 occasions); (defended major wine cork manufacturer, litigation involving 6 major wineries) U.S and Canada; and (5 fatality case) 8 depositions San Salvador, Dominican Republic.
In 2006, Mr. Cholakian was the 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 in defense of individuals and small businesses. For the 2nd time, he received the 2009 Farmers/Zurich Gladiator of the Year Award for trial work in 2009. In 2008, Mr. Cholakian received from Farmer/Zurich, Director of Commercial Claims, the Zurich Values and Visions Medallion for epitomizing core values of Respect, Integrity, Achievement and Social Responsibility.
He has twice been a panelist speaker at the NASP National Subrogation Convention, speaking on product and fire liability issues affecting subrogation recoveries in significant cases. He also has repeatedly been designated by his peers as a Northern California “Super Lawyer”, a designation received by only 5% of 10,000 Bay Area Lawyers. Only 13 lawyers in Northern and Central California were designated in the “Personal Injury Defense” category.
Mr. Cholakian is a member of the following organizations: Defense Research Institute (DRI) 1988 - Present, the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) 1990 - 2003, 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) 1998 - Present, Armenian-American and Italian American Bar Associations.
Mr. Cholakian is in his 10th term as President of the San Francisco Defense Association, a 40 year old Bay Area defense attorney organization comprised of civil defense litigators. Six State Supreme Court Justices have been guest speakers in the past two years. Mr. Cholakian also sits on the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the City Club of San Francisco and previously on the Parish Counsel of St. John’s Armenian Orthodox Church in San Francisco.
SPECIAL COUNSEL
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 truck litigation, product liability, personal injury litigation, intentional torts, landlord/tenant, premises liability, products liability, and has tried 5 significant cases to verdict. He is an experienced trial attorney and is also Special Counsel to the firm.
Jennifer A. Kung graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in English Literature in 1990 and her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1993. Ms. Kung has experience handling all aspects of civil litigation in the areas of product liability, construction defect, medical malpractice, subrogation, premises liability, business litigation, municipality liability, landlord/tenant matters and real estate litigation. She is a member of the California State Bar Association and the Alameda County Bar Association.
SENIOR TRIAL COUNSEL
Robert M. Pave received a B.F.A. in 1965, from the University of New Mexico, with a combined curriculum of Architecture and Fine Arts, after honorably serving in the United States Marine Corps. Mr. Pave, next, graduated from Southwestern University School of Law cum laude in 1971, and immediately began his private practice of law in Los Angeles, eventually transitioning into the predominantly Insurance Defense field where he has remained since 1982. In 1989, Mr. Pave moved to San Francisco at the request of State Farm and has been the lead partner of two law firms. Mr. Pave won 40+ jury trials for State Farm in the San Francisco Bay area, for a lifetime count in excess of some 60 jury trials to verdict. Mr. Pave is admitted to practice in the United States District Court, 9th District, in the Central and Northern Districts of California and is admitted to the United States Court of International Trade in New York City, where he practiced civil and criminal U.S. Customs Law. Mr. Pave excels in the areas of complex medical issues, brain injury and psychological injury.
Lisa A. Costello has experience handling all aspects of civil litigation, including investigation, mediation, arbitration, trial, and appellate matters. She represents businesses and individuals in the defense of claims or lawsuits involving catastrophic injury, premises liability, product liability, governmental entity, contract, employment, real estate, insurance coverage, and extra contractual defense of insurance carriers. She graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a B.A. in communication and sociology in 1992 and she received her J.D., cum laude, from New England School of Law in 1995.
Ms. Costello is admitted to practice in California (1996 – present), Nevada (1997-present), Arizona (2010-present), and Massachusetts (1996-present). She has been a speaker and moderator for C.E.B. programs regarding civil discovery, dispositive motions, and evidence. She serves as a court appointed arbitrator in the San Mateo County and Santa Clara County Superior Courts (2002-present). She is a member of the San Mateo County Bar Association, Santa Clara County Bar Association, Northern California Association of Defense Counsel, and DRI. She is also active in the community where she served as a volunteer board member for the San Carlos Educational Foundation (2007-2010) and the San Carlos Children’s Theater (2010-present).
Jeremy M. Jessup graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in Social Science in 1997. He received his J.D. from University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law in 2000. Mr. Jessup is an experienced trial attorney who has experience handling all aspects of civil litigation in the areas of personal injury, premises liability, contract dispute and creditor rights. He has been a member of the California State Bar Association since 2000. He is also admitted to practice before U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Northern District of California and Eastern District of California.
Colin H. Jewell received his B.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980 and his J.D. from the University of San Francisco in 1985. Mr. Jewell is an experienced trial attorney and civil litigator and specializes in personal injury, premises liability, truck litigation, product liability, governmental defense, business litigation, construction defect, subrogation, and insurance coverage. He is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California and Central District of California.
Brian J. Finn received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1985 and his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989. Mr. Finn is an experienced trial attorney and civil litigator and specializes in personal injury, premises liability, product liability, governmental defense, business litigation, and prosecuting insurance fraud in Qui Tam actions under Insurance Code Section 1871.7.
Mr. Finn is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California and Eastern District of California. He has volunteered as mediator with San Francisco Bar Association Early Settlement Program and as a private mediator. Mr. Finn is a member of the Northern California Fraud Investigators Association. He volunteers as a member of the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of North San Mateo County.