The firm is thrilled to announce that Chris Wesierski was selected again as a Superstar for 2020 and has been every year since the inception of those awards.
In addition, he has been selected as one of the Orange County top 50 lawyers again as well for 2020.
Wesierski and Zurek is proud to announce that Chris Wesierski has been asked to join the USD School of Law’s Board of Visitors and will join other distinguished alumni in helping to shape the future of the law school.
Wesierski and Zurek LLP is very proud to announce that Chris Wesierski was recently profiled in the Daily Journal and the article is below.
Also, Chris Wesierski and Michelle Prescott just obtained a defense verdict in Vista on a case involving brain damage.
The offer was $1 milliion before trial and the demand at trial by the other side was $35 million due to the future damages claimed.
John Andrew (Drew) Schaffer has been elected the 2019 Secretary/Treasurer for the OCBA Tort & Trial Section. In this position, he will move to Chair-Elect in 2020, and Chair in 2021.
We are so proud of our Senior Partner Chris Wesierski who will be receiving his award for CALABOTA TRIAL LAWYER OF THE YEAR FOR 2018 in Hawaii on November 9, 2018 at the Mauna Kea Hotel.
Chris wesierski was the featured speaker at the USD alumni event on Wednesday August 1, 2018 where he was asked to speak about his trial lawyer of the year award for Calabota 2018.
He is the first USD law student to win this prestigious award
New Fossil Location and New Species Discovered and Named for Wesierski & Zurek LLP Partner Paul J. Lipman: Ravniella Lipmanorum
Paul Lipman likes to hike on weekends when he is not defending corporate clients against catastrophic claims and class action suits. “It recharges me and lets me think. And because I have a longstanding interest in science, and a degree in physical geography and ecosystems, I keep my eye on the landscape. I often spot fossils, and over the years I’ve made a weekend hobby of researching geologic maps and technical articles online, and hiking in the known invertebrate fossil localities of the Los Angeles and Ventura County areas.” Most of these localities are discreetly registered with universities and museums to prevent spoiling, but with enough research and comparison of topological geological maps (which do not have handy reference points like streets), they can be reverse-engineered and found. “It is always exciting to find something that is millions of years old, even if the species and the general location are already known to science”.
But In 2014, Mr. Lipman saw something very unusual, something not known to science: Scattered complete specimens of ornately knobbed and whorled fossilized seashells, on a hillside that had its top layer stripped away by bulldozers working on a new housing development in Simi Valley. Mr. Lipman immediately sent photos from his cell phone to the world’s leading authority on the Eocene fossil record of the west coast of North America, Professor Richard Squires, who is also a key researcher for the Natural History Museum Of Los Angeles County. Prof. Squires promptly responded that the fossils were early Paleocene – 62 million years old, as determined by the overlap in the pictured fossils’ known dates of existence. This was confirmed by him to be a new locality not previously known. Further, he advised that early Paleocene invertebrate localities were rare on the west coast. The matter was urgent, due to construction.
Mr. Lipman contacted the developer and told them of the rarity and importance of the find, forwarding (with his permission) Prof. Squires’ prior emails attesting to the new locality’s scientific importance and the urgency of preserving the fossils before they were built over. Mr. Lipman obtained from the City the Environmental Impact Report filed in 2007 by the paleontological and archaeological impact monitoring company hired by the developer to make sure the area was not scientifically sensitive, which report however missed the fossils, probably because they were still buried. Shown all this, the developer very kindly granted permission to collect, and Mr. Lipman carefully collected and donated to the Museum an enormous amount of material. The area was not built on but was fenced off from the public and remains fenced off. In 2017, a presentation by Paul Lipman was made at USC in connection with the Museum at the 50th Annual Malacology Convention, including a slide show of the fossils found there. The authors were Squires, Lipman and Torrey Nyborg (whose picture was on the front page of the L.A. Times last year in connection with dinosaur discoveries). Mr. Lipman was the speaker, and his son Jacob, who had helped collect the fossils, ran the Power Point.
A new species was among the fossils found and presented, officially recognized, identified and described by Professor Squires. He named it for Mr. Lipman, “ Ravniella lipmanorum “ (the last part of a species’ two-part name is not capitalized). This little guy packed a punch: He was a carnivorous sea snail who invaded the shells or burrows of bigger animals, killed them and ate them.
Remarkably, it turns out to be the only known species of that genus in all of North America. Its nearest relations lived in Poland. This find sheds new light on how life forms made their way from the old world here along the so-called Tethyan currents, at a time when the continents and waters were configured a bit differently.
“I was well prepared to work with both the developer and the City in an effective way because of both my science and legal background” Mr. Lipman recounts.
This week, the discoveries are formally released in the journal The Nautilus in a technical article authored by Professor Squires and Mr. Lipman. Wesierski & Zurek LLP is on the front page as the address of record for Mr. Lipman, for researchers needing to contact him. Thus, Wesierski & Zurek LLP will be in the major universities and libraries of the world, in perpetuity. The fossils have been rescued for future generations from the bulldozer and obscurity, and research on them is already bringing new knowledge of our past to light. Wesierski & Zurek LLP continues leading the way in the courtroom, in science and in the community!
Project SELF held its annual recognition dinner honoring Project SELF summer interns from the class of 2018
On Wednesday, August 1, 2018, Project SELF held its annual recognition dinner honoring Project SELF summer interns from the class of 2018. The event was held at the Hilton in Costa Mesa with over 275 guests in attendance. OCBF & OC-ALA partner each year on the Project SELF program. The legal community hires rising seniors during their summer break from the Santa Ana School District and employs them for an 8 week program where the students learn skills, tour college campuses and local courts here in Orange County in an effort to encourage our youth to continue their education, be matched up with firms who mentor them and the students become comfortable in a professional environment.
Each year at the end of the program the students and their families are honored at a dinner and scholarships are awarded to the students by OC-ALA.
Christopher P. Wesierski was recognized as one of the “Top 50 Attorneys in Orange County” by Orange Coast Magazine. The selection was based on the following objective factors: verdicts, settlements, transactions, representative clients, experience, honors and awards, special licenses and certifications, position within law firm, bar and/or other professional activity, pro bono and community service, scholarly lectures and writings, education, employment background, and other outstanding achievements.