BOWLES & VERNA - Key Persons
Bradley R. Bowles is a passionate and committed attorney who is serious about getting the best possible results for his clients. He represents clients in California, focusing on a personal injury, business litigation, aviation practices and general litigation. Mr. Bowles has gained a reputation with his team at Bowles & Verna, LLP, as an attorney who puts his clients' needs first, aggressively representing them in court when necessary.
After graduating from the University of San Diego in 1996, Mr. Bowles received his Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law in 1999. He gained valuable experience working as a congressional intern in Washington, D.C., for the Honorable Amo Houghton of New York. He has experience litigating in front of most state and federal courts in California, as well as federal courts in New York, Kansas, Washington, Connecticut, Tennessee and Texas.
Mr. Bowles' experience has earned him the respect of his peers. He was recognized by the National Trial Lawyers as one of the top 40 attorneys under 40 in 2012 and 2013, and as a Super Lawyer- Rising stars from 2010-2014 and Super Lawyers- 2014-present. Beginning in 2013 and through the present Mr. Bowles has been honored by the National Trial Lawyers with membership in the Top 100 attorneys in the United States. Additionally, he has received the honor of lifetime memberships with the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum due to the successful results he was able to achieve for injured clients.
When not working, Mr. Bowles enjoys spending time in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, two daughters and English bulldog.
Education
Seattle University School of Law, Seattle, Washington
J.D. - 1999
University of San Diego, San Diego, California
B.A. - 1996
Job Titles:
- Partner
- International and National Counsel
Cheryl Noll joined Bowles & Verna as an Associate in 2011. Ms. Noll began her professional career as an attorney with Low, Ball & Lynch in San Francisco, CA. She subsequently worked as a litigator for Nagle, Krug &Winters (Winters, Krug & Delbon) in Burlingame, CA. Recently she worked as a litigator in construction defect complex ligation cases for De La Housaye & Associates in Walnut Creek, CA. She also represented corporate clients in business transactional and civil litigation matters.
Ms. Noll's legal practice has concentrated in insurance defense, construction defect and business litigation. She has represented major insurance companies, contractors and corporate clients. Ms. Noll also has extensive experience in public policy, community leadership and education support programs. She has advised city government on Charter City strategy and public programs. She has also chaired bond measure and parcel tax campaigns and has lead numerous community and educational support programs through all stages of evolution.
Ms. Noll's current focus is commercial litigation with an emphasis in real estate transactions.
Ms. Noll received her law degree from University of San Diego and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. She is a Member of the Contra Costa Bar Association and the California State Bar Association.
Education
University of San Diego School of Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- United States Federal Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California, Judicial Extern
K.P. Dean Harper was born in Portland, Oregon on March 27, 1953. He received a Bachelor's of Arts from Cal. State University at Hayward in 1976. From 1977 to 1979 he was a graduate student in history at the University of California at Davis. Mr. Harper graduated from Hastings College of the Law in 1983. He was Note and Comment Editor on the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly in 1982 through 1983. Following a three year career as a world ranked triathlete, Mr. Harper started his legal career with a mid-sized San Francisco based firm. He joined Bowles & Verna in 1987 and became a partner in the firm at the end of 1993. Bowles & Verna specializes in civil litigation and has twenty lawyers. Mr. Harper served for eight years as Judge Pro Tem on the Contra Costa County Small Claims Court of Appeals. He has also served as a court appointed mediator in the Contra Costa County Municipal Courts. He is a member of the Contra Costa, California and American Bar Associations and is a member of various national, state and local subsections involving real estate and torts.
Dean's current primary practice areas are real estate litigation and real estate risk management. He specializes in real estate litigation defending real estate licensees. He has handled over 800 real estate cases involving licensees over the past twenty years. He has tried or arbitrated over sixty cases.
He lectures frequently to real estate licensees and teaches California Department of Real Estate approved risk management courses. Dean has completed over eighty risk management seminars for thousands of agents over the past ten years. Dean also edits The Bowles & Verna Real Estate Bulletin, a newsletter for the real estate brokerage community. He has represented, and continues to represent, large and small real estate brokerage firms, Fortune 500 companies and major insurance carriers. Dean and his associates handle claims for numerous brokerage firms with a total of over 1000 agents.
Dean has also served as the President of several non-profit organizations, including the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Walnut Creek Aquabears, and the Forward Motion Race Club. Dean is married and has three children. In recent years Dean has begun again to compete in triathlons. He has won several national and world age group triathlon titles and several times been ranked the number one triathlete in his age group in the country. He also serves as coach to the U.C. Berkeley Triathlon Team.
Education
University of California, Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, California
J.D. - 1983
Job Titles:
- Construction, Project Manager, 2006 to 2008
Lawrence Goldberg's practice emphasizes business, public entity and construction litigation, landslide and geotechnical litigation and large personal injury litigation on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants. Mr. Goldberg is an experienced litigator and strong client advocate whose diverse practice ranges from representation of public/governmental entities and corporate principals to work on behalf of local, national and international companies. In addition, Mr. Goldberg has successfully litigated patent, trademark infringement and trade secret cases. Mr. Goldberg also counsels his clients on issues relating to the California Government Code, risk avoidance, risk management, statutory and regulatory compliance and the implementation of policies and procedures. He is a founding member of the San Francisco Lawyers' club chapter of the American Inns of Court and has served as president, program chairman, program leader and current member of the executive committee. Over the last 20 years, Mr. Goldberg has presented several dozen CLE programs on litigation topics including depositions, experts, evidence, intellectual property, government tort litigation practice, dangerous condition of public property, 3D forensic analysis, cross-examination, discovery including email and Issues in electronic discovery, electronic surveillance, age discrimination, sexual harassment, and talks on legal ethics and law practice management. Mr. Goldberg has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a third generation native San Franciscan. He attended Lowell High School where he was the captain of the track and champion cross-country teams. He then went on to obtain two degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. Between college and law school, Mr. Goldberg worked as a civil dispute mediator for the San Francisco District Attorney's office, Consumer Fraud Unit. He obtained his law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and is licensed to practice in all state and federal courts in California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Education
University of San Francisco School of Law, San Francisco, California
J.D. - 1993
Michael P. Verna's legal practice has focused on complex civil trial work since 1978. He has been recognized by his peers with admission to a number of exclusive trial lawyer organizations and by several legal publications. His track record of accomplishments range from recovering well over $100 million for his plaintiff clients to obtaining defense verdicts in multi-million dollar claims against his corporate and government clients. Mr. Verna is board certified in civil trial and pre-trial advocacy, and routinely handles cases in courts throughout the United States.
Richard A. Ergo has 40 years of experience in representing clients across the United States and around the world. He leads a multilingual team in matters ranging from international commercial disputes, products liability, business litigation and general business advice. Mr. Ergo's team members include persons fluent in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Spanish and conversational in Japanese and Cantonese.
The commercial litigation that Mr. Ergo and his team handle includes consumer class action defense, supply agreement disputes (including "take or pay" contracts with exposure in excess of $700 million), breach of fiduciary duty claims against majority shareholders and board members, embezzlement and trade secret disputes involving source code and manufacturing processes.
Much of his practice involves representation of product manufacturers in product liability claims, supply agreement disputes, trade secret issues, product recalls and contract drafting and negotiation.
One growing area of expertise for the team of Mr. Ergo, William Nagle and Cathleen Huang, is in hydrogen fuel system accidents. In 2023, the team completed 5 years of aggressive litigation in a major hydrogen accident in Louisiana, resulting in three separate lawsuits for commercial, personal injury and property loss damages, where more than $80 million of damages were alleged. With governmental mandates for cleaner energy and zero-carbon fuel objectives and U.S. federal investments of $7B into hydrogen hubs, the development and use of hydrogen technologies is increasing rapidly. As the hydrogen industry evolves, new incidents are likely to occur. Because of that our hydrogen team co-founded "HyLA" (Hydrogen Litigation Association) to provide a forum and resource for companies and attorneys involved in this evolving field. HyLA's inaugural meetings will take place on April 18 and 19, 2024 at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Ergo began his practice in the Los Angeles and San Francisco offices of Adams, Duque & Hazeltine. In 1985, he became one of the founding attorneys of Bowles & Verna, LLP. He holds the highest rating of "A.V." from the Martindale Hubbell Law Directory (http://www.martindale.com/). He has been named annually to the California Super Lawyers list since 2013.
Mr. Ergo has tried and arbitrated more than 30 cases. He currently serves as national counsel for Worthington Cylinder Corporation of Columbus, Ohio and Grand Hall Enterprise Co., Ltd. of Taipei, Taiwan. Mr. Ergo handles litigation for these and other companies throughout the United States.
Mr. Ergo's practice takes him all over the world. He has represented a variety of clients from China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Europe. Mr. Ergo regularly travels abroad, particularly to Asia, to meet with clients at their offices and manufacturing facilities to keep abreast of their operations and legal issues. He and his team routinely work with a network of international attorneys that they have developed over the years.
Particularly for Asian manufacturers, Mr. Ergo and his team act as outside general counsel, providing business advice and developing strategies to proactively avoid exposure to legal liability. This includes negotiating contracts, advising on potential litigation exposure, and ensuring that adequate and appropriate insurance is secured. When claims arise, Mr. Ergo strives to find solutions that not only resolve the claim at hand, but also minimize the potential for negative consequences in other pending or potential claims.
William T. Nagle has over 25 years of experience in representing clients across the United States and around the world. Before joining Bowles & Verna in 2001, Mr. Nagle practiced law in San Francisco with Celebrezze & Wesley, an insurance coverage boutique law firm, handling insurance coverage opinions and defense of bad faith claims. He currently handles litigation matters including work for manufacturers in both product liability lawsuits and commercial litigation matters. He has been recognized as a Super Lawyer for his work in product liability.
Mr. Nagle's practice also includes defense of class actions, supply agreement disputes, trade secret claims, product recalls, insurance coverage advice, contract drafting/negotiation and alleged product mislabeling/Prop 65 litigation.
He has managed trademark and patent litigation, real estate litigation, insurance coverage disputes, defense of employment claims including Private Attorney General Act claims, claims under collective bargaining agreements and clickwrap web agreement disputes.
Mr. Nagle's real estate practice has involved the defense of commercial real estate disputes, boundary disputes, inverse condemnation claims, property evictions, and litigation of Americans with Disabilities Act claims.
Mr. Nagle has experience handling consumer product recalls on behalf of American and Taiwanese manufacturing companies in the U.S., UK, Argentina, Brazil, Singapore, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Mr. Nagle has tried and arbitrated more than 25 cases. He has defended manufacturing defect claims in various states in the last 5 years including in New York, Iowa, Colorado, Illinois, Arizona, Georgia, Washington and throughout California. The product liability matters include product defect claims asserted against heavy machinery equipment manufacturers and personal injury claims involving compressed gases such as propane, helium, and hydrogen. Many of the personal injury claims have involved millions in claimed damages and significant personal injuries including amputations and traumatic brain injuries.
One growing area of expertise for the product liability team (Mr. Nagle, Richard Ergo and Cathleen Huang) at Bowles & Verna is in hydrogen fuel system accidents. In 2023, the team completed 5 years of aggressive litigation in a major hydrogen accident in Louisiana, resulting in three separate lawsuits for commercial, personal injury and property loss damages, where more than $80 million of damages were alleged. With governmental mandates for cleaner energy and zero-carbon fuel objectives and U.S. federal investments of $7B into hydrogen hubs, the development and use of hydrogen technologies is increasing rapidly. As the hydrogen industry evolves, new incidents are likely to occur. Because of that our hydrogen team co-founded "HyLA" (Hydrogen Litigation Association) to provide a forum and resource for companies and attorneys involved in this evolving field. HyLA's inaugural meetings will take place on April 18 and 19, 2024 at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Nagle has a wide array of experience litigating disputes in federal and state courts, as well as federal and state courts of appeal. Mr. Nagle has also represented clients with contract disputes and international interests in Afghanistan and Taiwan.