Events

William A. Aspinwall, an Associate in Severson & Werson’s Financial Services Practice Group, will serve as a volunteer instructor for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy Training’s “Building Trial Skills: San Francisco Program” from June 25-27, 2018.  Mr. Aspinwall joined Severson & Werson’s San Francisco office in 2017, having previously served as General Counsel for a publicly-traded company and having… Read More

On March 15, 2018, in Anaheim, California, a team of Severson lawyers offered their expertise in consumer reporting to members of the California Financial Services Association. The presentation, entitled “Best Practices and Avoiding Problems in Credit Reporting”, was presented by Andrew Elliott, Scott Hyman, Rebecca Saelao, Alisa Givental, Rochelle Smith, and An Le and included topics on current developments, best… Read More

Andrew W. Noble will present at the March 15, 2018, meeting of the California Bar Association’s Consumer Financial Services Committee on recent changes to California Homeowner Bill of Rights (HBOR). The HBOR statutes in effect since 2012 sunset on January 1, 2018, but were immediately replaced by a parallel set of statutes that, in some key ways, alter a mortgage… Read More

Joel L. Halverson will be presenting "Leveling the Playing Field - Contract Negotiation Strategies for Design Professionals" on Thursday, February 15, 2018. We are currently experiencing a “seller’s market” in which owners and developers are finding it to be a challenge to find good help. Construction professionals can take advantage of this economic climate to secure important contractual protections we… Read More

Rebecca Saelao and Megan Kelly from Severson’s San Francisco office and Scott Hyman and Rochelle Smith from Severson’s Orange County office attended the American Bar Association’s Consumer Financial Services Committee’s Winter Conference from January 6-9, 2018 in Park City, Utah. On January 7th, the Committee honored the passing of the Firm’s founder, James Werson, in 2017. Orange County Member-in-Charge, Scott… Read More

Scott J. Hyman moderated a panel entitled “DEBT SERVICING AND COLLECTIONS IN THE MARKETPLACE LENDING & ALTERNATIVE FINANCING SPACE” at the Opal Marketplace Lending & Alternative Financing Summit, Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point, CA. Read More

Some design-professionals regularly secure limitations of liability to their own great benefit as well as that of their insurers. Some despair that it is impossible and almost never try to establish any limits or boundaries. The very good news is that limitations of liability are real and valuable. More importantly, there are many roads to limiting liability beyond a generic… Read More

Gale A. Townsley spoke as a panelist for the ABA CLE series webinar “Driving the Next Generation: Update on Self-Driving Cars”, presented by the SciTech Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Ms. Townsley discussed the potential impact of driverless cars on the future of automobile insurance. Read More

On November 3, 2017, Scott Hyman participated on a panel with a number of other distinguished lawyers from industry and the consumer bar about current class action and regulatory developments in Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigation. Mr. Hyman is a member of the Governing Committee for the Conference on Consumer Finance Law, and the TCPA panel is part of the… Read More

On October 13, 2017, Severson attorneys Scott Hyman, Kristin Walker-Probst, and David Berkley spoke at the California Financial Services Association’s 77th Annual Conference in Palm Springs on Current Developments in Automobile Finance. Privileged to have presented to CFSA annually for over 10 years, Severson attorneys offered hands-on insight into compliance, regulatory, and litigation issues currently facing automobile finance lenders doing… Read More

In October, Austin Kenney and Alisa Givental presented at the 2017 Annual Conference of the Association of Consumer Vehicle Lessors, a national trade association of major retail automobile lessors. Mr. Kenney and Ms. Givental addressed preventative risk management solutions and responsive litigation strategies for claims and lawsuits arising under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and corollary state laws. The… Read More

Gale was a participant in an invitation-only National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop "Collaborative Research with Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications," at Stanford University. Read More

Participant in invitation-only National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop “Collaborative Research with Ethical, Legal and Social Implications”, Stanford University. Read More

Stanford University Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS) Dynamic Design Lab (DDL) "Autonomous Vehicles and Ethics: A Workshop” Gale A. Townsley spoke at two day closed, invitational-only meeting of 30 international participants from academia, law, and industry on insurance concerns presented by liability and ethical issues related to driverless automobiles Read More

Joel L. Halverson presented “Advocacy and Related Controversial Forensic Practices Under Meditation Confidentiality and at Trial" at the FEWA National Conference at the Bar Association of San Francisco, May 19, 2017. The presentation addressed industry trends, guidelines, and canons pertaining to advocacy in the forensic practices, including in the mediation process, and delve into courts' and attorneys' expectations and practices… Read More

Joel L. Halverson presented, “Contract Negotiation Strategies for Construction Professionals,” to the Western Construction Consultants Association, April 19, 2017, 6:15 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., at the Berkeley Yacht Club, 1 Seawall Drive in Berkeley, California. Link to Event Read More

The Panel examined lower court decisions in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court rulings affecting class action cases: Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez (Rule 68 offers and mootness); Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo (use of representative or statistical evidence in class cases); Microsoft v. Baker (considering appellate jurisdiction to review orders denying class certification) Read More

Ms. Saelao presented as part of Litigation Session 1—Key Developments: Fair Credit Reporting Act Litigation & Compliance Trends. Read More

The Consumer Financial Services Committee and Financial Institutions Committees of the Business Law Section of the California State Bar will join forces to host a workshop on one of the most pressing issues facing the financial services industry: Data Privacy in Financial Services. The workshop will bring together leading data privacy attorneys to explain what California financial services attorneys need… Read More

Jarlath Curran spoke on a panel entitled “State by State Survey on Important Case Law with a Spotlight on California’s Distinct Landscape: Litigation Trends, New Statutes, Statute of Limitations Issues and More” in San Diego, CA. Read More