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Mr. Stuart is a founding partner of Willoughby, Stuart & Bening and has over three decades of experience practicing law. He specializes in insurance coverage and bad faith litigation with a particular focus in commercial insurance litigation involving business, real estate, construction and professional liability matters. Mr. Stuart’s practice involves the representation of policyholders in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels. He also represents clients in real estate and business litigation, and serves occasionally as a mediator in complex insurance cases.
Devoting his practice to the delivery of creative, cost-effective legal solutions to complex problems, Mr. Stuart has used summary adjudication and motion in limine procedures to test legal theories in advance of trial, saving clients significant legal expenses. While he has tried cases to verdict, his strategy is to use pretrial procedures and mediation as a method for resolving all litigation disputes.
Prior to Willoughby, Stuart & Bening, Mr. Stuart was with the law firm Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel where he developed, with his current partners Randall Willoughby and Bradley Bening, one of the first specialty insurance coverage and bad faith practices in Northern California.
Mr. Stuart was named the Best Lawyers’ 2013 San Jose Insurance Law “Lawyer of the Year.” Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each metropolitan area is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year” making this a prestigious accolade. He has also been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 2006, when the publication began recognizing lawyers who specialize in insurance law, and as a Northern California Super Lawyer since 2004, when the Super Lawyers rating organization began recognizing the top five percent of lawyers in the state.
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Stuart moved to Santa Barbara, California, where in high school he developed a keen interest in journalism and the law. The Channel Oil Spill of 1969, anti-war demonstrations at University of California, Santa Barbara in 1970 and 1971, and the Watergate hearings of 1973 enticed Mr. Stuart to become active in the political process. He matriculated at the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in Rhetoric and served as a staff writer for The Daily Californian, covering a variety of political events. Mr. Stuart earned his Bachelor’s degree from Cal in 1977 and his J.D. from Santa Clara University in 1980.
Mr. Stuart spent a portion of his youth acting in musicals, which led him to an appointment with the San Jose Arts Commission in 1987, serving on the commission for five years. Mr. Stuart went on to chair the San Jose Urban Design Review Board for eight years, providing a layperson's perspective on architectural design for the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. While chairing the UDRB, Mr. Stuart also was appointed to the San Jose Elections Commission, which oversaw compliance with campaign finance laws by candidates for Mayor and City Council. Mr. Stuart served on the commission for nine years, six as chair, after which he was retained on several occasions to provide advice to the City of San Jose on matters of election law and ethics. Currently, Mr. Stuart is a board member of the San Jose Downtown Foundation, which promotes art and culture in the San Jose city core, and the Samaritan Cancer Foundation, a cutting edge organization devoted to assisting patients and their families navigate the challenges of cancer diagnosis.
Mr. Stuart is married and has two children. He had the privilege to coach both of his children in soccer for a decade. He has many interests, including still and video photography, skiing, fly-fishing, running and mountain biking. He is also a San Jose Sharks fan and looks forward every year to the playoffs, when the real hockey season begins.
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