California Pretrial Civil Procedure Practice Guide: The Wagstaffe Group

James (Jim) is the premier industry expert and authority with respect to pretrial civil procedure. Jim possesses an inimitable wealth of knowledge, experience, and practice as a California litigator, a federal litigator, educator, and lecturer, and as an accomplished author of The Wagstaffe Group Practice Guide: Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial, California Pretrial Civil Procedure Practice Guide: The Wagstaffe Group, and Federal and California content in the Civil Litigation practice area available exclusively on Lexis Practical Guidance.

Prior to coming over to LexisNexis, Jim spent 33 years as the primary author of The Rutter Group Practice Guide: Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial, a publication cited by the courts more than 1,300 times. Jim’s other publications include: California Trial Evidence (Practising Law Institute; Litigation and Administrative Practice Course Handbook Series) (PLI 2013); Game Changers: New Federal Rule Amendments (Thomson Reuters 2011); California Legal Ethics (TRG 1999); Commencing and Removing Actions to Federal Court (TRG 1986); “Much Ado About Doe Defendants,” 5 Cal. Lawyer, No. 9; and “Life After Remand” Federal Litigation. In addition to his legal publications, Jim authored Romancing the Room (Random House), a spirited step-by-step guide to effective public speaking. He also was a contributing author with Donald Trump, Larry King, and Ira Glass, among others, to The Expert’s Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do (Clarkson Potter 2004).

Jim is partner and founder of WVBR Law LLP, and handles a diverse range of litigation matters. His practice focuses on complex litigation, professional and governmental representation, will and trust disputes, legal ethics, and First Amendment matters. Jim is recognized as an authority and frequently is consulted by other law firms and clients alike on complicated civil procedure, attorneys’ fees and trial practice issues.

Jim currently serves as a member Chair of the Federal Judicial Center Foundation Board, appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. For more than 30 years, he has been responsible for development and delivery of various annual forums, seminars, webinars, and workshop sessions directed at educating federal judges and their respective clerk staffs on civil procedure and other aspects of federal law. In 2017, he was selected as California Lawyer Attorney of the Year for his successful representation of The State Bar of California in a high-profile privacy trial. In addition, Jim was recently picked as one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Northern California. His passion for Civil Procedure is infectious. Jim is a skilled teacher of law and possesses a unique ability to present complex topics in a clear, concise, and authoritative, yet entertaining, manner.

Steven J. Adamski, Co-Author
As Managing Partner for Adamski, Moroski, Madden Cumberland and Green LLP, Steve has represented both private and public clients in a wide range of matters including breach of contract, water rights, real estate and sports law. Steve is also a partner with the firm Robins Borghei LLP. Steve served as General Counsel for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors from 2001 until the team sold in 2011. From 1995 through 2011, he handled a wide range of legal services for the team, including complex matters and disputes for the franchise, as well as employment matters, coach and player related disputes, breach of contract, financing, local taxation, sponsorships and broadcast rights. He regularly represented the franchise in its ongoing relations with both the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda. For more than 30 years, Steve was one of the original authors and editors of The Rutter Group’s Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial. In 2016, Steve joined The Wagstaffe Group as a Partner to author and produce The Wagstaffe Group Practice Guide: Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial and the Civil Litigation modules for both California and Federal available exclusively on Lexis Practice Advisor. A 1981 graduate of U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), Steve is a member of the California Bar Association and the San Luis Obispo County Bar Association. He is a former President of the San Luis Obispo County Bar and has also served as a delegate to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference.

Frank Busch, Co-Author
Frank is an experienced litigator who has represented parties of every size in complex trial and appellate matters. He has experience with all phases of discovery, motion practice, mediation, arbitration, trial, and appeal, including a successful oral argument before the Ninth Circuit. Passionate about technology and informed by his Computer Science degree from Yale University, Frank understands his clients, their business models, and their products and services. He also understands his clients’ need to protect their confidential information in a world where companies rely on that confidentiality to protect their critical intellectual property. Frank has represented companies, along with state and local governments, in a broad range of disputes including software, contracts, unfair competition, and trade secret issues in both California state court and federal courts across the country. Frank’s expertise in civil procedure is further reflected by his role as a contributing author to the Wagstaffe Group Practice Guide: Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial and Lexis Practice Advisor, both published by LexisNexis. Frank’s clients benefit from his up-to-the-minute knowledge of key civil procedure issues resulting from his work on this critical resource. Frank also has an insider’s view of government law enforcement practices, having contributed to an investigation by the Northern District of California United States Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice’s Mortgage Backed Securities Working Group that achieved a $2.6 billion settlement agreement with Morgan Stanley. This amount is the largest sum ever recovered in a civil case investigated by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.

Hon. Evelio M. Grillo, Editorial Consultant
The Honorable Evelio M. Grillo is a Judge of the Superior Court for the County of Alameda. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Grillo served as a discovery referee and special master by appointment of the Alameda County Superior Court and was a partner in Grillo & Stevens LLP, located in Oakland, California, a firm specializing in the representation of municipalities in civil rights litigation and businesses and individuals in litigation involving claims of fraud, negligence, breach of contract, wrongful termination, and breach of fiduciary duty. Judge Grillo is a contributing author to California Forms of Pleading and Practice and has published and lectured in the areas of civil procedure and summary judgment. Judge Grillo is a 1985 graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a Masters of Public Policy degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

Paul R. Kiesel, Editorial Consultant
Mr. Kiesel is a partner with Kiesel law LLP, Beverly Hills, California. His practice is devoted to the representation of consumers in personal injury, product liability, class action, pharmaceutical and environmental litigation. Mr. Kiesel has been very active in the legal community. He Is Past President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and was the past Chair of its Litigation Section. After serving on the Board of Governors for the California and Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association (now the Consumer Attorneys Association of California and Los Angeles), he has been elected an Emeritus Board Member of both organizations. Mr. Kiesel also has served on the Board of Governors for the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. Mr. Kiesel has been recognized as one of the top 50 trial lawyers by the Los Angeles Business Journal and has been recognized multiple times as one of the top 100 attorneys in the state of California by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal. He is a frequent writer for the legal community on technology issues including publication in the ABA Journal, the Los Angeles Daily Journal and LexisNexis Law 360. Mr. Kiesel is also a member of the LexisNexis California Advisory Board and is a frequent speaker on continuing legal education throughout the country.

Edith R. Matthai, Editorial Consultant
Edith R. Matthai is a partner with Robie & Matthai, a Professional Corporation, in Los Angeles, California, where her practice centers on professional malpractice defense, insurance related litigation and business litigation. She is a past president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the California Defense Counsel, The Association of Southern California Defense Counsel and the Los Angeles Chapter of ABOTA. She is a former chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability and has been certified by the California State Bar as a specialist in Legal Malpractice law. Ms. Matthai currently sits on the California Judicial Council, the policy making body of the California courts, and is a member of its Executive and Planning committee which oversees the council’s strategic planning process, sets the agendas for the council meetings, recommends candidates for appointment to the council and its advisory bodies and takes action on behalf of the council between meetings. Ms. Matthai was named by California Lawyer as one of the prominent California attorneys in the defense of legal malpractice actions, and by the Los Angeles Daily Journal/San Francisco Recorder as one of the top 30 women litigators in California.

Hon. Richard Seabolt, Editorial Consultant
The Honorable Richard Seabolt is a Judge of the Superior Court for the County of Alameda. Prior to his appointment to the bench in 2018, Judge Seabolt was a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP, an AmLaw100 firm, where he served as a co-head of the Commercial, Securities, and Antitrust Litigation division of the firm’s Trial Group. He has had extensive experience in complex trials and appeals arising from commercial disputes in the technology, entertainment, construction, and insurance industries, and has tried many large, complex cases representing both plaintiffs and defendants to favorable verdicts, including a three-month, billion dollar jury trial that the National Law Journal identified as the largest case tried to a defense verdict in 1992. Judge Seabolt is a past Chair of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California and a past President of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL), Northern California Chapter. He has been a lawyer or judge member of the California Judicial Council’s Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions (CACI Committee) since 2003. Judge Seabolt has been the update author of the LexisNexis California Trial Guide since 2017.

The Wagstaffe Group.
Led by Jim Wagstaffe, partner and founder of WVBR Law LLP, The Wagstaffe Group was launched in 2016 with its primary goal to provide practicing litigators with groundbreaking tools for success as they tackle the complexities of civil procedure.

The Contributing Authors to The Wagstaffe Group represent a highly experienced and talented array of federal judges and law clerks, law firm managing partners, honored trial and appellate attorneys, and longtime writers of litigation practice guides.

Featured editors and authors include:
Steven J. Adamski, Partner and Executive Editor – Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial| Co-Author - California Pretrial Civil Procedure Practice Guide
Kelly Corcoran, Senior Contributing Author – Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial| Executive Editor and Contributing Author – California Pretrial Civil Procedure Practice Guide
Frank Busch, Contributing Author – Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial| Co-Author - California Pretrial Civil Procedure Practice Guide

Additional contributing authors to Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial include:
Hon. Jacqueline Scott Corley (Lead Judicial Editor)
Suzanne Klotz (Senior Contributing Author)
Keith Fong
Cherokee DM Melton
Maria Radwick
Brooke Veris Rusenko

Additional contributing authors to California Pretrial Civil Procedure Practice Guide include:
Michelle L. Gearhart
Joshua M. George
Hon. Martin J. Tangeman

Kelly Corcoran. Kelly brings to The Wagstaffe Group a decade of experience in California and federal courts. Her private practice experience includes successfully representing both plaintiffs and defendants in individual and class actions. Her strategic implementation of discovery procedures and effective motion practice has achieved favorable outcomes on summary judgment, in settlement, at trial and on appeal. Kelly was named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers before becoming a staff and supervising attorney with the Federal Pro Bono Project, a collaborative effort of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and the Justice & Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

Complimenting her experience is a commitment to fostering strategic and efficient litigation, demonstrated by her longstanding contributions to practical guidance. Focused on providing litigators with the most up-to-date and thorough advice, she is an author and editor of the Civil Litigation modules for both California and federal practice available on Lexis Practice Advisor and a contributor to The Wagstaffe Group’s Current Awareness platform. As a Partner at TWG, Kelly is also one of the original authors and an ongoing editor of The Wagstaffe Group Practice Guide: Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial.

Kelly graduated from the University of California Hastings College of Law and the University of Michigan. She is admitted to practice in California and Colorado.