McGuinness & Associates

PROFESSIONAL RATING

​

Mr. Flashman is recognized by Martindale-Hubbell as an AV rated attorney, which is the highest available rating.

​

​

EDUCATION

​

J.D., University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall College of Law.
B.A., Economics and Philosophy, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.

 

​

​

ASSOCIATIONS

​

State Bar of California. 
Admitted to practice before all Federal Courts in California.

​

​

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

​

"Construction Management - A Legal Roadmap," seminar presented to a client group.

 

​

​

REPRESENTATIVE CLIENT EXPERIENCE

​

• Participated in trial that resulted in verdict of $97.3 million, including $75 million in punitive damages, in which one of defendants was controlled by California gubernatorial candidate.
   

• Obtained settlement for clients that had executed over $16 million in notes to bank for less than $100,000 based on bank's misconduct in securing notes.
   

• Obtained large confidential settlement in product liability case against major international manufacturer and airline during presentation of plaintiffs' case to jury.
   

• Obtained judgment in excess of $325,000 in slander of title to real property action.
   

• Obtained favorable settlement in excess of $600,000 during presentation of clients' case in arbitration regarding breach of contract and specific performance of securities agreement with publicly traded company.
   

• Settled $2 million breach of contract case for $12,000 after winning summary adjudication on most causes of action.
   

• Obtained numerous judgments in court trials of business cases.
   

• Obtained favorable settlement on behalf of client in legal malpractice action against one of the largest law firms in the country.
   

• Obtained judgment by way of demurrer in case involving business dispute between a lawyer and his former client.
   

• Prevailed in defense of numerous professional liability actions, including accountants, physicians and attorneys, by way of trial or summary judgment.
   

• Prosecuted and defended numerous commercial and residential unlawful detainer actions.
   

• Successfully prosecuted numerous actions for transfers of property in fraud of creditors, both in State Court and Bankruptcy Court.

​

• Successfully defended a music industry business from a disability discrimination complaint.  Client’s manager fired employee who claimed to have been injured at work. Manager expressly stated in a written letter to employee that the termination was based on the employee’s work place disability.The employee sued our client based on a disability discrimination claim. Extensive discovery and follow-up investigation produced evidence that the worker had been injured outside of the work place, and had staged a false injury incident at work in order to seek workers’ compensation benefits.  Our firm prevailed in the legal action.

​

• A terminated employee brought an action against a company, alleging violations of whistleblower statutes.  Our firm developed evidence that the employee’s complaint was false and fraudulent, and the company was justified in terminating employee for making false allegations.  During the course of the lawsuit, our firm also developed evidence that the plaintiff had routinely disclosed confidential information to unauthorized persons, creating a successful after-acquired evidence defense.

​

• Successfully defended an unemployment claim and a sexual harassment and discrimination claim brought by an employee whose job was eliminated in a company restructuring event.  The employee possessed substantial evidence of demeaning and discriminatory sexual preference comments texted about him among supervisors. Our firm was able to demonstrate that his termination was, however, entirely unrelated to the work place bias.  

​

• Enabled corporate client to invoke trade secret protections against departing employee who had wiped clean all information from his company computer and the company phone, and maintained the only existing copy of proprietary materials.  Our firm obtained an agreement from the new employer to: (1) return all of the proprietary information, (2) ensure against any duplication of the proprietary materials, and (3) ensure that former employee would not approach client customers for a one-year period.

​

• A client hired a new manager from a competitor company.  The new manager had signed a non-solicitation clause at his former employment.  This clause covered the non-solicitation of both customers and employees of the former employer.  The new manager, a member of the client’s management team, violated this agreement by soliciting and hiring several of the former employer’s employees.  Former employer sued manager and client alleging they had conspired to illegally solicit members of his work force. At trial, our firm defeated the former employer’s claims, persuading the court that such a contractual anti-solicitation provision violated both California law and public policy, and could not be enforced.​

​

• Former employee alleged a right to unemployment benefits and damages, asserting that he had been injured at work and terminated because of the work place injury.  Our firm developed evidence that this former employee: (1) had been fully compensated for the same work injury at a prior time, (2) had not worked for the client for years after the actual injury occurred, and (3) had fabricated evidence in an effort to establish later injury and termination dates.

​

• Prevailed at a bench trial on a breach of oral contract claim, after the court determined that a written contract between the parties was invalid.  Firm lawyers persuaded the court that sufficient evidence of an oral agreement existed, even though the written contract could not be enforced.

 

• Obtained multimillion-dollar settlement on breach of oral contract claim.  Defendant contended that no contract had ever been formed and the claim was entirely fabricated.  A videotaped deposition of defendant became dispositive evidence in favor of our client. The defendant’s testimony was inconsistent and generally lacked credibility as compared to other witness accounts.

​

• A client manufacturer incurred multimillion-dollar losses from product failures attributed to a subcontractor supplier’s defective component parts.  Our client manufactured water purification systems. The litigation involved the supplier’s improper sale of defective component parts. The supplier had changed its material provider and then began providing a defective and unsafe supply of component parts which were essential to the end unit.  Supplier refused to accept responsibility for defects, asserting the client was misapplying the component parts. Matter settled just before trial with a full payment by supplier.

​

• Obtained a million dollar settlement for client employee against former employer based on claims for failure to pay earned wages, unlawful business practices, conversion and fraud. Our firm developed evidence that the employee's former employer had wrongfully labeled employee's commission as a "bonus" to withhold payment, and further, had wrongfully undervalued and fraudulently concealed the true value of employee's ownership interest in company, to deprive employee of the full value. Successfully defended employee against former employer's cross-claim for misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.