Attorneys

Steven McDonald

Steve is one of the partners in de la Pena & McDonald firm. A Bay Area native, Steve earned his Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon (Economics honors society). He graduated from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, and clerked for the U.S. Attorney and U.S. Department of Justice, Land and National Resources Division. During his clerkship, Steve worked on the Mono Lake relicted lands dispute and the Kesterson Refuge selenium contamination case.

Rated "AV" by the Martindale Hubbell attorney peer review service, in 2006 Steve was voted a "Super Lawyer" (top 5% statewide) by that peer review organization in the field of Construction Defect Litigation. He enjoys managing a diverse civil litigation practice, which has grown over the last twenty-three years to include insurance and casualty defense, premises liability, coverage and bad faith litigation, construction, real estate, employment, personal injury and general business matters. With a caseload that has ranged from straightforward business and tort disputes to the successful defense of thirty-two million dollar insurance bad faith claims, Steve takes particular pride in his role as a dispute resolver for his clients. He has served as a arbitrator for the San Francisco Superor Court, as a mediator, and encourages use of Alternative Dispute Resolution programs when available as an appropriate alternative to traditional (and often time consuming and expensive) litigation. Steve volunteers as a justice for the appellate Advocacy and Moot Court Program at Hasting College of the Law.

Steve lives in San Francisco with his wife, Sally, their daughter Maggie, with holiday and summer visits from their two college-attending sons, Ed and Tim.

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