SAN FRANCISCO -February 15, 2008 – California Lawyer magazine has named 34 attorneys around the state to receive the twelfth annual California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year Awards. Their achievements had a significant impact in 2007, or their work is expected to have such an effect in the coming years. The awards recognize 22 accomplishments in 16 areas of legal practice.
The honored attorneys include sole practitioners, attorneys from international law firms, government attorneys, and a law school professor. The recipients of the CLAY Awards are featured in the March 2008 issue of California Lawyer.
The attorneys and their achievements are briefly described below:
Charles D. Naylor, Sole Practitioner, San Pedro
Scott P. Nealey, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, San Francisco
Robert J. Nelson, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, San Francisco
Category: PERSONAL INJURY
In one of the year’s largest personal injury verdicts, NAYLOR, NEALEY, and NELSON won $50 million in punitive damages, as well as $5.2 million in compensatory damages, against DaimlerChrysler for the wrongful death of a 38-year-old longshoreman who suffered fatal injuries when the Dodge Dakota he was driving ran him over after he left the vehicle. The accident was blamed on a “park to reverse” defect in the automatic transmission, said to affect more than a million DaimlerChrysler vehicles.
CEB and Pacific Search International are sponsors of the CLAY Awards this year.
