Walls, Sarah K.

Skip Walker has had 50 jury trials and tried over 100 cases in various forums. He has also briefed or argued approximately 75 cases in courts of appeal throughout the country.  Among his landmark appellate cases are Bonanno v. Central Contra Costa Transit Authority (2003) 30 Cal 4th 139,  which established that the location of a bus stop can constitute a dangerous condition of public property; and Holmes v. Syntex (1984) 156 Cal App 3d 372, which at the time was the leading case in California on forum non conveniens.

In 2003, Skip was a finalist for California Trial Lawyer of the Year based on his work in Bonanno, a case that went to trial three times, the court of appeal three times and the Supreme Court once, and resulted in a $3.89 million verdict as well as new law.  In 2010, he was a finalist for San Francisco Trial Attorney of the Year for his work in Yao v. Thrasher, a case in which defendant refused to offer any money before Skip got involved, and in which, two months later, a jury returned a verdict of $5,850,000.

Skip has been elected to Fellowship in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, regarded by many as the most prestigious of all trial lawyer organizations and restricted to just 500 lawyers in the United States.  He is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.  As with the Academy, Fellowship in the College is extended by invitation only and only, after careful investigation, to those experienced trial lawyers who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality. Additionally, membership in the College cannot exceed one percent of the total lawyer population of any state.

He is also a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and has lectured for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (now AAJ), Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, Marin County Bar Association, Continuing Education of the Bar, American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys, and other professional organizations. He has served as a moot court or mock trial judge for Hastings, the University of San Francisco, and Stanford, and as an arbitrator for the San Francisco Superior Court. He is consistently named as a “Super Lawyer,” an honor reserved for only 5% of the lawyers in Northern California. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Consumer Attorneys of California, is a member of that organization’s legislative committee, and is credited with helping re-write California’s Civil Jury Instructions (CACI).

He is a member of the Massachusetts as well as the California Bar, and has held the highest legal rating (A-V) for over 27 years.  His biography can be found in most Who’s Who publications.

 
Originally from Massachusetts, he still has a summer home on Cape Cod.  He is a graduate of the Northfield Mount Hermon School, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.  He played football and baseball in college, played rugby for 25 years in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and still plays softball, participates in various distance bicycling events, has rafted most of the white water rivers in the West, travels extensively, and is a bad golfer.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of San Francisco’s Lawyer Friends of Wine.

Mr. Walker’s sixth novel, Crime of Privilege, will be published by Ballantine in 2013.  His five previous novels, include the award-winning A Dime to Dance By, as well as The Immediate Prospect of Being Hanged, and Rules of the Knife Fight. His works have been published not only in this country, but also in Japan, France, Sweden, and Great Britain.

He can be e-mailed at skip@whk-law.com