Mr. Buddell is a trial attorney with extensive experience in many areas of civil defense including: Products Liability, Premises Liability, Complex Personal Injury, Toxic Torts, Transportation/Trucking, Wrongful Death, Auto/Truck Casualty Claims, Environmental, Employment and Insurance Coverage.  He has successfully defended his clients in hundreds of arbitrations and dozens of trials throughout twenty-eight of California’s fifty-eight county Superior Courts, in the Northern, Central and Eastern Districts of United States District Court and in Illinois and Arizona.  He has also successfully defended appeals filed in the First and Third Districts of the California Court of Appeal and in the California Supreme Court.

Mr. Buddell’s successes include many defense verdicts in complex, high profile and “problem” cases, including those he obtained in City of Modesto v. TDCC —an 8½ month groundwater contamination trial in which the jury awarded $118.3 Million in damages against the other defendants; and Erickson v. Central Valley Towing – a personal injury/chronic pain case in which plaintiff sought over $21 Million in damages.

Mr. Buddell is an active member in many legal/professional organizations including: Defense Research Institute (DRI); Transportation Lawyers Association (TLA); Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) and the American Bar Association (ABA).  He is also a former Chair of the Transportation Section of the Primerus Society of Law Firms and is frequently asked to speak at national seminars in the areas of Civil Litigation, Trial Advocacy, Transportation Law and Asbestos Litigation/Defense.  Since 2013, Mr. Buddell has been selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer® and, in 2013, was recognized as one of the “Top Attorneys of the San Francisco Bay Area” by San Francisco Magazine.  Mr. Buddell is also an Associate (second tier) Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)—a prestigious, invitation-only organization of plaintiff and defense lawyers in which prospective members are strictly screened for high personal character, an honorable reputation and for having tried a significant number of jury trials to verdict.

Education

  • University of California, Berkeley, B.A. in English Literature and Rhetoric, 1990
  • Golden Gate University School of Law, 1993 (Member of Mock Trial Team)

Bar Information

  • Admitted to California State Bar, 1993
  • S. District Court, Northern District
  • S. District Court, Central District

Bar Associations

  • Bar Association of San Francisco
  • American Board of Trial Advocates, Associate Level
  • Transportation Lawyers Association