MARK A. WEINSTEIN received his Bachelor’s degree (cum laude) at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1972 and his Juris Doctorate (cum laude) from Loyola Marymount University School of Law in 1975. After remaining on the Dean’s List throughout law school and earning entry into the Saint Thomas Moore Law Society, he was admitted to the California Bar in 1975. A member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), Mr. Weinstein serves as an Arbitrator for the Los Angeles County Superior Court in the field of personal injury.

Mr. Weinstein came to the firm in 1986 from the Office of the California Attorney General. During nine years of practice he was promoted to the highest rank of Deputy Attorney General IV. Mr. Weinstein practiced in the Tort and Condemnation section, representing various state agencies such as the Department of Corrections, California Highway Patrol, Department of Mental Health, Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Department of Insurance. He had full responsibility for multi-party complex litigation including Newman v. Stringfellow, where over 5,000 plaintiffs sued the State and others for damages allegedly resulting from toxic materials deposited at the Stringfellow disposal site in Riverside County; and Sinaloa Homeowners Association v. State of California, an inverse condemnation action filed in Federal Court because of the Department of Water Resources decision to breach a privately owned dam causing property damage to 40 homeowners.

His most recent high-profile civil rights trial, a federal police misconduct action, was successful on appeal–and that is no surprise. In Allen v. Singer, Mark defended before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals the CHP officer who pulled over Rodney King’s white Hyundai on the night of his arrest. This case represented a successful conclusion to the civil rights challenges of King and his passengers.

Over the years, Mr. Weinstein has established himself as a preeminent authority in public entity defense with an array of government tort cases, resulting in over 20 published appeals that have, in some circumstances, virtually redefined the scope of public entity liability.

In addition to Allen v. Singer, et al., Mr. Weinstein has to his credit published opinions such as Clemente v. State of California; Chevlin v. Los Angeles Community College District; Kuykendall v. State; State of California v. Meyer; Truong v. James; Guess v. State of California; and Leader v. State, in which Mr. Weinstein persuaded the Court of Appeals to revise the law of collateral estoppel. Mark’s meticulous handling of the Leader case at trial laid the groundwork for appeal, furnishing the appellate court with a sound legal and factual basis for changing the law.

Mr. Weinstein’s trial and appellate work in another case, Hacker v. City of Glendale, was instrumental in focusing the development of the defense of primary assumption of the risk. Mr. Weinstein’s ability to litigate complex and sensitive tort cases has also earned him a reputation in the areas of negligent security, foster care liability, harassment, discrimination, and other similar high-exposure cases. As one of the Firm’s primary trial attorneys, his practice also includes medical malpractice defense, truck accidents, construction disputes, products liability, and intellectual property. Mr. Weinstein also heads the Firm’s appellate practice group.

Recently Mr. Weinstein served as co-instructor of several courses including C.E.B.’s “How to Handle a Government Tort Liability Claim,” and a series of classes presented by Veatch Carlson on basic investigation and litigation techniques.