Family Law

• Child Support
  From pre- and post-nuptial agreements to property division to spousal and child support to custody, GMSR has extensively litigated family law issues in the appellate courts.  GMSR's appellate lawyers have also assisted clients in connection with mediations or other settlement discussions, helping them to resolve disputes favorably without protracted litigation where possible.
• Child Custody and Visitation
  Family Law. GMSR represents former spouses on appeal as to dissolution, support and property-division issues, and in writ proceedings regarding important pre-judgment matters such as discovery, temporary support, pre-marital agreements and child custody.

Criminal Law

• Criminal Defense
  J.D., Georgetown University Law Center (2002).  Cum laude; Georgetown University Law Center Appellate Litigation Clinic, American Criminal Law Review (Editorial Board).
• Forgery
• Extortion
  The Court of Appeal held that GMSR’s client had a concrete and actual interest in recovering $1.6 million that she did not believe she owed.  She did not lose standing simply because she sold the property.  It further held that GMSR’s client stated claims for conversion, Penal Code section 496 extortion, and Civil Code section 1712 unlawful exaction, and revived those claims for further proceedings.

Business and Corporate Law

• Business Disputes
  At the trial level, complex business disputes often require a team of lawyers, sometimes including specialists with deep expertise in a particular legal area.  The trial team has many chances to explain complex legal and factual issues, often in an ongoing dialogue with the trial judge.
• Trade Secrets
• Intellectual Property
• Unfair Competition
  Business litigants turn to GMSR when the stakes are high, whether it’s to preserve an important victory or to challenge an adverse decision.  GMSR has substantive experience in a range of fields including antitrust, bankruptcy, banking/lender liability, contract interpretation and enforcement, torts, trade secrets misappropriation, and unfair competition.  That experience, combined with GMSR’s outside-the-box thinking and persuasive writing, ensures appellate briefs that present its clients’ case in the strongest light possible.  Savvy clients also regularly bring GMSR in long before the appellate stage to draft dispositive motions, review proposed jury instructions and verdict forms, and advise on strategy with an eye toward appeal.
• Antitrust

Employment Law

• Wrongful Termination
  Clients regularly turn to GMSR's appellate lawyers for help resolving thorny labor and employment issues.  The firm has prevailed in the U.S. Supreme Court on a significant issue of workplace privacy and in the California Supreme Court on issues pertaining to non-competition agreements; successfully handled appeals in wage-and-hour class actions, wrongful termination, and discrimination suits; and obtained dismissals of employees' suits on procedural grounds.
• Employment Discrimination
  The firm’s practice is not limited to any particular substantive areas of the law. It represents clients—both plaintiffs and defendants—in diverse fields including constitutional law, civil rights, governmental torts and immunities, personal injury torts, insurance coverage and bad faith, complex business disputes, business torts, copyright, unfair competition, antitrust, RICO, securities, entertainment, environmental law, employment discrimination and wrongful termination, family law, bankruptcy and probate.
• Employment Litigation
  Adept at working hand-in-hand with trial lawyers.  Her substantive experience includes trusts and probate, profit participation and other contract disputes, employment claims, and issues facing public entities.
• Sexual Harassment
  Title IX. GMSR partnered with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to draft an amicus brief arguing that a new rule nominally intended to protect students of color, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ students from sexual harassment will instead actually deter reporting misconduct and adequate investigations by amplifying the roles of stereotypes, biases, prejudices, and discrimination.

Property Law

• Construction Litigation
  GMSR’s appellate work has been on the leading edge of important tort issues, running the gamut from duty to breach to causation and damages.  GMSR’s substantive experience includes personal injury, property damage, fraud and misrepresentation, products liability, landowner liability, vicarious liability, defamation and invasion of privacy, and construction defects.
• Eminent Domain
  GMSR has long represented public entities throughout California.  As a result, GMSR's appellate lawyers are intimately familiar with the issues that these entities regularly confront, including federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, tort liability and immunity, land use, eminent domain, labor and employment, and education law.  GMSR's experience includes significant victories at the U.S. Supreme Court, numerous appeals, and regular consultations on trial court law-and-motion matters. GMSR partner Tim Coates also co-authored a chapter on federal civil rights liability in the CEB publication California Government Tort Liability Practice (4th ed. 2004).
• Easement
• Land Use and Zoning
• Property Damage
  Coverage Disputes. GMSR represents insurance carriers in coverage appeals involving a broad spectrum of issues, including first-party property claims, environmental defense costs, third-party liability for property damage, bodily injury, personal injury, business risks, and professional errors and omissions.

Health Law

• Personal Injury
  Torts. GMSR handles appeals and writ proceedings in (for example) fraud, defamation, personal injury, negligence, and professional malpractice cases.
• Medical Malpractice

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  Estate Planning and Community Property Journal Annual Banquet, Texas Tech School of Law, Featured Speaker on Marshall v. Marshall
• Wills
  Trusts and Estates. GMSR represents trustors, trustees, executors, and beneficiaries on appeal and in writ proceedings involving issues arising in probate court, including interpretation of wills and trusts, and breaches of fiduciary duty.
• Trusts
  Laying the Foundations for Appellate Success – Tips for T&E Litigators, Beverly Hills Bar Association Trusts and Estates Committee
• Probate

Finance Law

• Bankruptcy
• Foreclosure
  David Hackett has a broad-based appellate practice in which he has briefed and argued numerous appeals, writ petitions, and dispositive pre-trial and post-trial motions on a variety of topics, including agency and partnership, anti-SLAPP motions, arbitration, civil procedure, contracts, constitutional law, employment, environmental law, evidence, family law, health care, probate, real estate, state and federal regulations, and tax, among many others.  David has also developed expertise representing secured commercial creditors in appeals regarding California’s unique real estate foreclosure procedures and the law of suretyship and guaranty.