Gordon, Faye

Christopher J. Duenow grew up in San Luis Obispo, graduating from San Luis Obispo High School in 1980. Mr. Duenow graduated cum laude from California State University Chico in 1985, receiving a B.A. in social science. He attended the Garvin School of International Management (Thunderbird), and received an M.B.A. in 1988. Thereafter, he worked as an English professor for a Japanese junior college, Suragadai Minami Educational Institution in Tokyo, Japan from 1989 to 1991.

Upon returning to the United States, Mr. Duenow attended the University of San Diego School of Law, receiving his Juris Doctor in May of 1993. Upon graduation, Mr. Duenow worked in San Francisco as an international tax consultant for KPMG Peat Marwick.

Returning to San Luis Obispo in 1994, Mr. Duenow began a civil practice as an associate with Smith Helenius & Hayes. Mr. Duenow’s practice at that law firm involved representing the interests of local businesses and property owners in transactional and litigated matters. The balance of his practice was devoted to public entity and insurance defense litigation.

In 1997, Mr. Duenow joined the law firm of Cumberland & Coates, a firm which then specialized in the field of insurance defense litigation. He represented clients, and the interests of the Automobile Club of Southern California, Farmers Insurance Exchange, TIG Insurance Company, and multiple local public entities and school districts.

In 2002, Mr. Duenow became a principal in the firm which was known as Cumberland, Coates & Duenow LLP. In 2003, Mr. Duenow began to apply his education, experience, and trial skills associated with business and tax matters to the area of family law. Today, Mr. Duenow devotes the majority of his practice to litigating and mediating family law matters.

In 2009, Mr. Duenow opened his own firm in Paso Robles, Duenow Law Office.

During the course of his practice, Mr. Duenow has been the lead attorney in numerous jury trials, court trials, arbitrations, and mediations. He has also served as judge pro-tem and mediator in both civil and family law matters.

Mr. Duenow is a member of the San Luis Obispo County Bar Association, including the Family Law subsection, the Central Coast Trial Lawyers Association, and Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California. He is also a member of the Family Law subsection of the California State Bar Association. Mr. Duenow has served as advisory counsel to the San Luis Obispo Women’s Shelter Program.

He is licensed to practice in California, Colorado, Minnesota, and is admitted to the Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of the United States District Court, having litigated several matters in the Central District. He is also admitted to the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, having appeared as appellate counsel in the Ninth Circuit on several issues. He is admitted to the United States Federal Claims Court, having represented clients under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Mr. Duenow is married, has three children, and resides in Paso Robles, California. In his spare time, he enjoys snow skiing, water skiing, riding motorcycles, and playing basketball. Mr. Duenow has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, having resided in Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, San Jose, Costa Rica, and Tokyo, Japan.