focus on what matterS

High quality legal work with a strategic approach.











Quality with a Strategic Focus

Glynn, Finley, Mortl, Hanlon & Friedenberg, LLP was founded in 1991 to provide the high quality legal work usually associated with large law firms in a small firm setting. Our practice focuses on litigation and alternative dispute resolution. We began as a spin-off of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, and our lawyers have worked at some of the nation’s finest large law firms, including Covington & Burling; Skadden, Arps; and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. Our goal in every case is to provide “big firm” quality more economically, both because our hourly rates are lower and because we use critical judgment to limit legal activities to the essential. We strive to maintain open communication with our clients and always to be available for consultation, discussion, and advice.


Sophisticated Clients, Lasting Relationships

A law firm receives no better endorsement than repeat engagements by its clients, and our approach to legal practice has proven popular with many sophisticated clients. Since 1992, we have been one of approximately 40 “primary” firms upon which DuPont relies for litigation representation. We have handled dozens of cases for Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and General Electric. We have been hired, and then re-hired, by Dean Foods, EOG, Guaranty Bank, Invista, Osram Sylvania, RELLC, Sears Roebuck, Temple-Inland, U.S. Steel, Valero Energy Corporation, and Verizon Wireless. We are privileged to represent some of the Bay Area’s most important public entities, including the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and Sandia National Laboratories. We look forward to continuing our relationships serving these and our other clients, and to developing relationships with new clients to assist in the thoughtful, pragmatic, and tough-minded resolution of their legal disputes.


Extensive Litigation and Resolution Experience

Our practice is devoted to dispute resolution, including traditional litigation and all forms of ADR. Our lawyers possess extensive experience in state and federal court, both in California and elsewhere. We have experience in arbitration, mediation, and hybrids of each. Our lawyers are accustomed to handling large, multiparty disputes and complex litigation, as well as smaller matters. We have litigated cases with hundreds of millions of dollars in dispute, and others with tens of thousands. Occasionally, we step into a case as trial counsel in the middle of litigation, either as co-counsel or as a replacement. When necessary, our representations continue through appellate work, and we also handle appellate matters that are new to us, including emergency petitions and writs.


The clients for whom we work have a broad array of law firms and lawyers from which to choose. We distinguish ourselves from other firms both in the results we achieve and how we achieve them. You need not take our word for that; we can provide references from satisfied clients with whom we have had deep and long-lasting working relationships.