Attorneys

A native of Staten Island, New York, Bob Tyson is the Strategic Managing Partner of the firm. Mr. Tyson is a trial lawyer and author of the #1 best-selling, first book written for the defense to limit exposure at trial, Nuclear Verdicts: Defending Justice for All…

A San Diego native, Pat Mendes is a Founding Partner of Tyson & Mendes and works from the firm’s San Diego headquarters. Over the course of his career, Mr. Mendes has developed a formidable track record in defending insurance companies and businesses…

Kristi Blackwell is the California Regional Managing Partner for Tyson & Mendes and leads the firm’s Retail, Restaurant, and Hospitality practice group. Her practice focuses primarily on general liability, professional liability, personal injury, products liability, premises liability, coverage, and complex litigation. Ms. Blackwell has wide-ranging litigation experience representing…

Dan Fallon is the Managing Partner in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. Mr. Fallon leads a group of litigators specializing in professional liability, personal injury, general commercial liability, and business litigation…

William Johnson is the Managing Partner at Tyson & Mendes’ Nashville office and is a Partner in the San Diego and Los Angeles offices. His practice focuses on defending against claims of catastrophic personal injury, sexual torts…

Emily Beck is a Partner in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego and Los Angeles offices. Her practice primarily focuses on general liability and commercial and insurance litigation, including personal injury defense…

Kathryn Lee Colgan is a Partner in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego and Orange County offices. Ms. Colgan is an experienced ten plus year attorney and leads two multi-attorney litigation teams in the areas of general liability…

Codie Dukes is a Partner in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. A member of the firm’s Complex Trial Team, she has extensive litigation experience representing individuals and businesses in California state and federal district court cases…

Harry Harrison is a Partner in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. His practice focuses on personal injury, employment, and the defense of entity and organization defendants involving allegations of sexual misconduct.

Margaret M. Holm is a Partner in the Orange County, San Diego, and Los Angeles offices and Chair of the Healthcare practice.  Ms. Holm is one of the country’s leading trial and appellate litigators for large health care entities…

Cayce E. Lynch is the firm’s Administrative Partner based in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. In this capacity, she wears multiple hats – directing Tyson & Mendes’ administrative, marketing, and business development activities, and has taken the firm through a period of unprecedented growth…

Sue Mason is a Partner in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. Her practice focuses on personal injury, product liability, employment, and the defense of nonprofit organizations…

Mina Miserlis is the Chair of Complex Trials. Based in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office, she brings more than 20 years of litigation and trial experience to leading the firmwide Complex Trial Team. She focuses her practice on complex personal injury matters.

Susan Oliver is a Partner at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office and leads a multi-attorney team. Her practice focuses on catastrophic personal injury defense, the defense of entity defendants where sexual torts are alleged…

Christopher Schon is a Partner in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. He specializes in high exposure catastrophic personal injury and general liability defense. Mr. Schon also assists privately held businesses in state regulatory and compliance matters.

Morgan Van Buren is a Partner in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office and a member of the firm’s Complex Trial Team. His practice focuses primarily on general liability and high exposure litigation. Mr. Van Buren has significant litigation experience, including handling of matters involving diverse damages claims and potential excess exposure.

Terra Affourtit is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. She specializes in high exposure catastrophic personal injury and general liability defense.  Ms. Affourtit has experience representing insurance and public entity defendants in a variety of legal matters, including class action tax litigation, tort litigation, personal injury, wrongful death, construction and premises liability, directors and officers, errors and omissions, quiet title and boundary disputes, and civil rights and police liability.

Lindsey M. Ball is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego and Northern California offices. Her practice primarily focuses on general liability and the defense of entities and organizations against allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct…

David Bregman is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. He has spent the better part of his legal career analyzing and resolving complex business and commercial and construction related disputes and achieved Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards. Mr. Bregman successfully represents clients in a wide range of complex business transactional and litigation matters including contractual disputes, contract review and negotiation, corporate formation, real estate, complex construction litigation, delay claims, mechanics lien actions, and risk management.

Sergio G. Chaidez is Senior Counsel at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office.  He represents public entities and school districts in litigation involving personal injury and the sexual assault of minors.

Rachel Donnelly is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office and is a member of the Complex Trial Team. Ms. Donnelly has extensive trial and litigation experience. She began her career immediately upon admission to the State Bar of California as a law clerk with the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. Since then, she has represented clients in civil cases ranging from personal injury to labor and employment matters. Ms. Donnelly’s practice now focuses on personal injury and insurance litigation.

Ashley Paige Fetyko is Senior Counsel – Director of Client Relations and Education. Ms. Fetyko is based in the San Diego office, but her practice takes her to all of the firm’s offices. Her practice focuses on education and development of Tyson & Mendes attorneys, business development…

Dana Furman is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office with a wide range of practice areas including legal malpractice, bad faith, wrongful death and general liability matters. Ms. Furman has been praised by the judiciary for her legal skill and trial ability and has secured multiple judgments in favor of her clients at trial, arbitration, through motion practice and on appeal.

Chase Goodman is Senior Counsel at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. Mr. Goodman primary practice focuses on catastrophic accidents, personal injury, premise liability, and business litigation.

Tim Irving is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. Mr. Irving concentrates his practice on representing insurance carriers and corporate clients in high-stakes litigation. He has more than 25 years of courtroom experience representing clients in complex insurance coverage disputes, commercial litigation, and the defense of professional liability and general liability claims. Prior to joining Tyson & Mendes, Mr. Irving was a litigation partner at an AmLaw 100 firm.

Matthew Izu is Senior Counsel at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. His practice focuses on medical malpractice defense, elder law defense, regulatory law, personal injury defense, and legal malpractice defense.

Dane Joseph is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office.  His practice focuses on general liability matters, including automobile liability and personal injury matters…

David Kahn is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office specializing in the defense of complex, multi-party general litigation and personal injury matters. Mr. Kahn has extensive litigation experience representing individuals, businesses…

Kristopher Lancial is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. His practice focuses on general litigation, including personal injury defense, corporate liability, and automobile liability.

Courtney E. Leverty is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office.  Her practice areas are construction defect, personal injury, premise liability, and professional liability cases…

Mitchell B. Malachowski is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego and Northern California offices and engages in full-spectrum civil litigation defense. His trial-court and appellate practice specializes in complex litigation…

Garry (Gerald) McCarthy is a Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. He has almost 30 years of experience as both a business attorney and a litigator, and has extensive experience in all phases of litigation including investigation and discovery…

Rob Olson is Senior Counsel in the Orange County and San Diego office. Mr. Olson has specialized experience handling all types of personal injury lawsuits – from major brain and concussion injuries to minor trip and falls…

Emily Straub is Senior Counsel at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. Her practice focuses on defending personal injury, general liability, and professional liability claims. Ms. Straub’s practice is also geared towards representing businesses of all sizes, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, in business disputes and employment litigation.

Ms. Stuppiello is Senior Counsel at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office and a member of the firm’s Complex Trial Team. Ms. Stuppiello has comprehensive experience representing businesses and individuals through all phases of civil litigation. Her practice primarily focuses on defending against personal injury and property damage claims. Her background also includes defending subrogation actions brought on behalf of insurance carriers.

Ana Walsh is Senior Counsel at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office.  Her practice areas include complex and catastrophic loss litigation, commercial real estate, and contracts. Ms. Walsh has extensive experience in business and litigation matters…

Brian Woolfall is Senior Counsel in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office.  His practice focuses on litigating complex construction defect and property damage claims on behalf of developers, general contractors, and subcontractors along with our construction defect litigation team.  Mr. Woolfall also has also litigated cases involving personal injury, products liability, unfair business practices, and antitrust violations over nearly 25 years of experience.

Kiran Gupta is Special Counsel for Client Relations and Legal Education at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office.  The primary focus of her practice is developing legal content for the firm’s training, marketing, and education programs. 

Grace Shuman is Counsel for Client Relations and Legal Education at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego Office. Ms. Shuman’s focus is on developing legal content for the firm’s marketing, education, and training programs.

Bill Koska is Of Counsel at Tyson & Mendes in the Environmental & Toxic Tort practice group.  Mr. Koska has 50 years’ legal experience, the last 30 of which have been devoted to environmental issues.  Mr. Koska represents a variety of clients, both large and small, on a broad range of environmental matters in various courts and administrative boards, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  These litigations include CERCLA, CEQA, Clean Air Act, Proposition 65, asbestos-related cases, federal and state safe drinking water laws, and air quality issues.

Sam Camp is an Associate Attorney in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego Office.  His practice focuses on personal injury defense. Mr. Camp has extensive litigation experience. He previously worked as staff counsel for a Fortune 500 Insurance Company…

Ross Harper is an Associate in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. He is a member of the firm’s Complex Trial Team, where his practice focuses on a variety of complex civil litigation matters.

Camille Kollar is an Associate at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. Her practice focuses on general litigation, including personal injury defense, corporate liability, automobile liability, and employment defense…

Matthew Majd is an Associate at Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. He is a member of the firm’s Complex Trial Team, where his practice focuses on a variety of complex civil litigation matters…

Fiona Murphy is an Associate in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego office. She is a member of Team Susan, where her practice focuses on personal injury defense, general liability, and the defense of entity defendants where sexual torts are alleged…

Anthony J. Puzo is an Associate in Tyson & Mendes’ San Diego Office. Mr. Puzo’s practice areas include insurance coverage and insurance defense litigation involving complex and high stakes personal injury lawsuits…