FRIED, WILLIAMS & GRICE CONNER - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- PARTNER
- Member of the Legal Communities of the East Bay
Alana Grice Conner graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Social Welfare. She received her law degree from Syracuse University College of Law and has been practicing law for over two decades.
Named Partner in 2019, Alana first began working with Clifford Fried and Steve Williams in 2008 and was instrumental in helping form the Fried & Williams law firm. She specializes in residential and commercial leasing, real property purchase and sales, and landlord-tenant litigation. She has experience representing clients in court and at rent board proceedings. Alana is also a mediator and has mediated dozens of landlord and family disputes.
Alana has given numerous presentations on landlord-tenant law to the East Bay Rental Housing Association and the Oakland Housing Authority. Alana is currently serving on the Richmond Rent Board. She also is a regular contributor to EBRHA Magazine and SF Apartment Magazine.
Alana has been an active member of the legal communities of the East Bay and California for over 20 years. She has been a member of the California State Bar since 1996.
David Semel has been a practicing civil litigator since 1999, and represents both plaintiffs and defendants in legal disputes at all stages. David specializes in real property law and has extensive experience counseling and advocating for clients regarding rent control, eviction control, recovering possession of rental units, wrongful eviction, habitability issues, toxic torts, neighbor disputes, code violations, permits, disabled accommodations, and insurance coverage. He also has experience in general civil litigation including premises liability, construction defect, breach of contract, and personal injury cases.
David has extensive experience resolving disputes and handling all phases of litigation from initial pleadings through fact and expert discovery, drafting and arguing dispositive and discovery motions, mediation, arbitration, and trial. He has obtained favorable results in numerous cases via mediation, arbitration, and trial.
Job Titles:
- ASSOCIATE
- Associate Professor at the California State University East Bay
Edward M. Lai specializes in representing building contractors and small business owners in commercial disputes, employment litigation, contract negotiation and more. Edward has experience in the fields of commercial and residential real estate, landlord/tenant, construction and construction defect law, Americans With Disabilities (ADA) litigation, first party and third party insurance coverage, business entity formation, and perfecting/enforcing mechanic's liens and stop notices. Edward recently served as former chairman and vice chairman of the City of Oakland Housing, Relocation and Rent Board.
Prior to becoming an attorney, Edward was an insurance claims litigation specialist for national insurance carriers The Maryland Casualty Company and CNA Insurance. As a claims representative, he gained expertise in analyzing first and third party insurance coverage under commercial general liability policies, homeowner policies, marine policies, and professional general liability (errors & omissions) policies. He also became skilled in negotiation from handling thousands of litigated and non-litigated claims. His knowledge of how insurance carriers evaluate and handle their claims makes Edward highly effective in achieving the best results for his clients, whether it is through settlement negotiations or through trial.
Edward is an Associate Professor at the California State University East Bay where he teaches college level paralegal and prelaw classes. He is a Law Instructor for SCORE and he volunteers as a Special Master for the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Solano. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Alameda County Meals on Wheels and Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay, a member of the Redwood Heights Neighborhood Association, and a member of the Oakland Police Department Oral Board Assessor Team.
Mandana is an accomplished civil defense litigation attorney with over ten years of experience in trial advocacy. She has defended property owners in lawsuits brought by tenants concerning habitability, wrongful eviction, harassment, and violations of local and state rent and eviction ordinances. She is well versed in both rent and eviction control laws throughout the Bay Area, and offers counsel to property owners interested in pursuing buyout agreements and evictions.
Mandana was selected as a SuperLawyers Rising Star in 2020, a highly prestigious distinction given to less than 2% of all practicing attorneys in Northern California.
Matthew P. Quiring is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Martin Luther King, Jr. School of Law at UC Davis, and has been assisting, advising, and representing landlords in Alameda and the East Bay since 2009. After joining Fried & Williams in 2014, Matthew assisted clients with evictions, rent increases, wrongful eviction defense, settlements, writs and appeals, and general litigation. Matthew currently specializes in landlord outreach and education, lease drafting, and real estate transactions.
In addition to his private practice, for the past 7 years, Matthew has partnered with the Volunteer Legal Services Corporation and the Alameda County Bar Association to provide pro bono legal services to low income landlords, including assisting with paperwork, preparing for trial, advice on settlement and negotiation, and training other attorneys to do the same. Matthew has personally donated over 100 hours of pro bono services annually, and received numerous awards and recognitions for his contributions, including being named the 2010 VLSC Volunteer of the Year.
Matthew currently serves on the ACBA Real Estate Executive Committee, which is responsible for providing continuing education for real estate attorneys throughout the county, as well as writing articles for local real estate trade publications, hosting workshops and Q&A sessions for local landlords, and training classes for young and newly-admitted attorneys on how to represent landlords in the Alameda Superior Court.
Matthew lives in Berkeley with two cats, and his husband, Ian. He is a San Francisco Giants fan, and has traveled as far away as Zimbabwe. He likes to garden on Saturday morning and give away applesauce made with his grandmother's recipe. He has been an officer in his World of Warcraft guild since 2006, which meets annually in cities around the USA.
Matthew has been advising and representing East Bay landlords in eviction and Rent Board matters since 2009. He lives in Berkeley and is an active member of the Alameda County Bar Association.
Matthew is the recipient of the 2010 Volunteer of the Year Award for his work on behalf of low-income landlords.
Job Titles:
- LEGAL SERVICES DIRECTOR & SENIOR PARALEGAL
- Senior Paralegal
As a lover of the great outdoors, Robin is a high ropes course facilitator focusing on team building and leadership skills, an event staff member for the City of Sausalito, and serves annually as a volunteer coordinator for the Sustainable Enterprise Conference. If that weren't enough, she is also a rocking bass player.
Robin is an important part of the Fried, Williams & Grice Conner law firm. She is a paralegal with an intimate understanding of the practice and procedure of real estate law. This comes from more than 30 years of experience working with Clifford Fried as a paralegal on more evictions than most eviction attorneys.