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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Sanford Michelman

Sanford Michelman never forgets that he is a businessman as well as a lawyer. His approach to managing the law firm he helped found is to practice law but closely monitor the business issues of cash management, hiring new employees, and growth. Too often, managing partners of law firms get mired in the business side and focus on billing for more hours and increasing rates, which, while important, is not what brings in clients. “What gets you a client is to do good work,” Michelman said. “To build a successful practice, do quality work.” A graduate of UCLA and the Southwestern University School of Law, Michelman’s practice focuses on the commercial, regulatory, insurance, and financing industries. He handles both transactional matters and litigation. The expertise in regulatory law comes from having clients in industries that are heavily regulated. Michelman relies on his experience of working in Washington, D.C. for a U.S. senator and his time as a member on the State Athletic Commission for knowing how government works. Michelman & Robinson, LLP numbers Survival Insurance, Gateway Computers, 99 Cents Only Stores, and MyCorporation.com among its clients. A legal career was ingrained in Michelman as a child. He had many family members who were lawyers, including his grandfather who practiced for 55 years. It was intriguing and inspiring to visit his grandfather at his Los Angeles law office, Michelman said. After earning his law degree, Michelman worked for one other Valley firm before founding Michelman & Robinson. The firm has more than 50 lawyers spread over three offices although Michelman expects that number to reach 75 by year’s end due to client demand. If he could, Michelman said, he would try cases all day long. His approach is to find ways to settle the case while prepping for trial, Michelman said. “Sometimes you can’t get to that settlement place but at least you’re prepared to try the case, Michelman said. Mark Robinson, Michelman’s partner in their law firm, described him as tenacious, and a lawyer who finds creative ways of litigating. Michelman successfully represented Eastwood Insurance in wage and hourly class action dispute over unpaid overtime, and prevailed as the defense attorney in another matter in which the plaintiff sought $138 million from a company. For the Eastwood case, Michelman researched the legislative intent of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and determined that it banned representative actions lawsuits with a single person representing the class, said Mona Hanna, managing partner of the Orange County office of Michelman & Robinson, who assisted on the case. The result of the case was establishing a requirement that a plaintiff actively choose to be part of a class action lawsuit, Hanna said. “That was a radical change of what every other class action is like,” Hanna said. Mark R. Madler

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