Jonathan W. Gregory
| Office | Northern California |
| Phone | 707.522.1100 |
| Fax | 707.522.1101 |
| jgregory@smithdollar.com |
Biography
Jonathan Gregory is a member of the firm's mortgage banking, loss mitigation, and financial services groups. His practice includes all aspects of discovery, law and motion practice, and pre-trial work.
Mr. Gregory formerly served as a litigation associate at the San Francisco law firm of Chapman Popik & White LLP, representing plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of subject matters, including insurance coverage, legal malpractice, and business litigation. While in San Francisco, Mr. Gregory served four years as adjunct professor of Conflict of Laws at San Francisco Law School. Mr. Gregory began his career at the Santa Rosa and San Francisco offices of Lanahan & Reilley LLP, where he specialized in mortgage fraud, real estate, and construction litigation.
Mr. Gregory is an experienced brief writer. His representative work includes the following:
· Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., v. Discover Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74435 (N.D. Cal., 2009), involving an inter-insurer contribution claim brought by a mall owner's insurer against a mall tenant's insurer. Mr. Gregory helped secure summary judgment in favor of the mall tenant's insurer. The court held that the tenant's policy, which named owner as additional insured, did not cover mall patron's personal injury claim against owner.
· Borikas, et al. v. Alameda Unified School District, Case No. VG08405316 (Alameda County Superior Court, March 17, 2009). Mr. Gregory's opposition to motion for summary judgment helped persuade the court to find that a sixteen million dollar parcel tax which classified and taxed residential property differently from commercial/industrial property did not violate uniformity requirements imposed by California law.
· Tenney v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50987 (E.D.Cal., 2008), involving a choice-of-law insurance dispute over underinsured motorist benefits. Mr. Gregory secured summary judgment in favor of the insurer after persuading the court to apply California law to an out-of-state accident.
· Fowler v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111976 (S.D. Miss., 2008); and Fowler v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114707, 1-2 (S.D. Miss., 2008). Mr. Gregory prepared the first successful Daubert motion in Hurricane Katrina insurance litigation, and also the successful opposition to plaintiff's motion for reconsideration. His briefing helped persuade the court to exclude the expert testimony of a renowned engineer with several graduate degrees and numerous patents.
· Taylor v. Spring Lake Village, et al., SCV240132 (Sonoma County Superior Court, July 28, 2010). Mr. Gregory drafted a successful motion to void a $500,000 default judgment. His analysis of legislative history persuaded the court to find that a 1984 appellate court's decision interpreting Code of Civil Procedure Section 425.11 was still good law, despite subsequent amendments to the statute which had excised the language upon which the 1984 decision was based.
Bar admissions
All California courts
U.S. District Courts, Northern and Eastern California.
Education
Mr. Gregory graduated from Indiana University - Bloomington, Kelley School of Business in 1998, with high distinction, and from the UCLA School of Law in 2001, where he was an Editor-in-Chief of the UCLA Entertainment Law Review. In 2007, he also received a Master of Arts degree from San Francisco State University, where he studied English legal history and English literature.
Professional associations and memberships
Member, Sonoma County Bar Association