Fee Agreement Forms Manual

About the Consulting Editors

MERRI A. BALDWIN is a shareholder in the San Francisco office of Rogers Joseph O'Donnell. Her practice focuses on attorney liability and commercial litigation. She handles claims of legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty, as well as motions to disqualify and for sanctions. She regularly counsels lawyers and law firms on legal ethics and law practice management issues. She represents attorneys in disciplinary proceedings before the State Bar of California, and has extensive experience handling attorney-client fee disputes. Ms. Baldwin is the former chair and special advisor of the State Bar of California Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct. She is a co-chair of the Legal Malpractice subcommittee for the American Bar Association Litigation Section Committee on Professional Services Litigation. Ms. Baldwin served as the President of the Bar Association of San Francisco for 2017. Ms. Baldwin frequently lectures to attorneys and professional organizations on issues related to litigation, legal malpractice, and ethics, and she is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she teaches professional responsibility. Ms. Baldwin co-edited The Law of Lawyers' Liability (2012) and since 2006 she has served as a consulting editor for the Fee Agreement Forms Manual, published by Continuing Education of the Bar, California. She is certified as a specialist in Legal Malpractice law by the California Boards of Legal Specialization and is a Fellow of the American Bar Association Foundation. Prior to law school, Ms. Baldwin was a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics. Ms. Baldwin received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, and graduated magna cum laude from Smith College.

DEMETRIOS DIMITRIOU was of counsel at Dimitriou & Associates, PC, a San Francisco firm. He had a statewide practice acting as counsel to attorneys who were starting, moving, selling, or terminating practice. He advised attorneys on documentation, attorney fee, professional liability, ethical, and practice management issues. He served as an ethics expert witness. He was a member and past Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco Ethics Committee and a member and past Chair of the Association's Law Practice Management Section Executive Committee. He also served on the California State Bar Ethics Committee and the Executive Committee of its Law Practice Management Section and the American Bar Association Law Practice Management Section Council. Mr. Dimitriou lectured nationally and wrote extensively on ethics and law practice management issues. He received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in 1959, and his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1954.

M. SUE TALIA (Chap 9: Limited Scope Representation) is a certified family law specialist in Danville. Ms. Talia has specialized in complex family law matters since commencing practice in 1977. Since 1997, Ms. Talia has limited her practice to PAGE xiiprivate judging in complex family law. She devotes a considerable amount of time to writing and legal reform activities. Ms. Talia served as the Chair of the Limited Scope Representation Committee of the California Commission on Access to Justice and has served on numerous committees and groups dedicated to increasing access to the courts. She has developed a training program for attorneys who wish to safely unbundle their practices and offer limited scope representation as part of their professional service. She is a frequent author and speaker on issues relating to limited scope representation. Ms. Talia received her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in 1977, her M.A. from Stanford University in 1974, and her B.A. summa cum laude from Santa Clara University in 1971.

ROBERT W. WOOD (Tax Issues) practices tax law in San Francisco with Wood LLP. Mr. Wood is a member of the California, New York, District of Columbia, Montana, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, and Arizona bars. He is certified as a Specialist in Taxation, former Chair of the Taxation Law Specialization Commission, and former Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the California State Bar Tax Section. A central part of Mr. Wood's national practice is advising lawyers, accountants, and litigants concerning the tax aspects of litigation payments and recoveries, and appropriate tax planning and documentation of settlement agreements. He also regularly represents taxpayers before the IRS and the courts. In addition to more than 30 other tax books, he is the author of Taxation of Damage Awards and Settlement Payments (4th ed 2009), Qualified Settlement Funds and Section 468B (2009), and Legal Guide to Independent Contractor Status (5th ed 2010), as well as hundreds of articles dealing with the tax treatment of litigation recoveries. He speaks nationally on this topic to accountants, lawyers, and businesspeople. Mr. Wood received his J.D. in 1979 from the University of Chicago Law School and his A.B. summa cum laude in 1976 from Humboldt State University.

MEGAN ZAVIEH focuses her practice on attorney ethics; representing attorneys facing State Bar disciplinary action; providing guidance to practicing attorneys; podcasting; speaking to lawyers at industry conferences; and writing extensively for online and print publications. After a clerkship with the Honorable Evan J. Wallach of the United States Court of International Trade and practicing litigation for several large firms in New York, Ms. Zavieh transitioned to supporting other lawyers. Ms. Zavieh created The Playbook: The California Bar Discipline System Practice Guide, a digital product for self-represented attorneys facing discipline. She is an advocate for reforming legal ethics rules to bring them in line with modern business practices. Ms. Zavieh is the former Chair of the Solo and Small Firm Section of the State Bar of California (now California Lawyers Association). Ms. Zavieh received her J.D. (Order of the Coif) in 1999 from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and her B.A. in 1996 from Humboldt State University.