About the
Author
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Hon. Kevin R. Culhane
is a judge of the Sacramento Superior Court, where he currently conducts a
general trial assignment. Before assuming the bench, Judge Culhane was a partner
at the Sacramento
law firm of Hansen, Boyd, Culhane & Watson from 1977 to 2002, and Hansen,
Culhane, Kohls, Jones & Sommer from 2002 to 2008. His practice consisted
primarily of professional liability and appellate law. As a practitioner, Judge
Culhane held an A-V rating from Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.
He has been a visiting professor of Evidence and Torts
at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, and is currently completing his 32nd
year as an adjunct professor teaching Insurance Law, Professional
Responsibility and Advanced Torts. He has been a faculty member at
Hastings Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy in San Francisco, and frequently lectured on discovery and
trial matters for California’s
Continuing Education of the Bar. He has an LLM from Stanford and his JD
from McGeorge.
This full-time practice/part-time teaching combination
helped Judge Culhane write a book useful to experienced practitioners
and understandable to novices.
Judge Culhane was also a member of the California State
Bar Board of Governors, and was active in his County Bar Association. As
a practitioner, Judge Culhane was instrumental in establishing the
California State Bar’s Professional Liability Insurance Program and
served as the Chair of the Board of Governors Committee on Attorney
Discipline. Before assuming the bench, he served a one-year term as
Vice-President of the State Bar of California, and was appointed to two
successive terms as a member of the Judicial Council of California.
Noteworthy cases of his include Benford v. Kawasaki (defective
motorcycle sidestand, $825,000 plaintiff’s verdict), North Dakota v.
Neville (U.S. Supreme Court appearance as amicus in DUI refusal),
Potter v. Westfield (injury settlement exceeding $7 million), and
136 Families v. Coordinated Financial Planning (assets exceeding $1
million recovered from defendant). Reported appellate cases include
Adams v. Paul (1995) 11 Cal.4th 583; Chirmside v. P.E.R.S.
(1983) 143 Cal. App. 3d 205; Miofsky v. Schweiker (1983) 709
F.2d 1517; Municipal Court v. Superior Court (1992) 9
Cal.
App. 4th 1867; Olney v. Sacramento Co. Bar Ass’n. (1989) 22
Cal. App. 3d 807 and CTLA v. Superior Court (1986)
187 Cal. App. 3d 575.
A10
Updated
04/06/12
