Jon Eisenberg is a California State Bar Certified Appellate Specialist and is admitted to practice in California state courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Eisenberg has represented clients in major cases including appeals of judgments exceeding $100 million. He has argued before the California Supreme Court on a variety of subjects including mediation confidentiality, the right to die, the ethical duties of "of counsel" attorneys, and California's anti-SLAPP statute.

Mr. Eisenberg is a prolific writer on appellate matters. He is principal co-author of the widely-used Rutter Group treatise California Practice Guide: Civil Appeals and Writs. He has published numerous other works on appellate law and is a frequent speaker on the subject. Mr. Eisenberg is also the author of The Right vs. The Right to Die, a nonfiction account of the Terri Schiavo case, in which Mr. Eisenberg participated as one of the attorneys representing Michael Schiavo.

Mr. Eisenberg teaches California Appellate Process at Hastings College of the Law and has served as a court-appointed mediator for the First Appellate District's appellate mediation program.

Mr. Eisenberg received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Irvine and his Juris Doctor from Hastings College of the Law, where he served as Associate Editor of the Hastings Law Journal and was Order of the Coif.

PUBLICATIONS

Co-Author, California Practice Guide: Civil Appeals and Writs (The Rutter Group 1989; updated annually)

Author, Twelve Prose Poems by Roger J. Traynor (With a Nod to Charles Baudelaire) (2008) 9 Journal of Appellate Practice and Process 101

Author, Suing George W. Bush: A bizarre and troubling tale (July 9, 2008) Salon.com

Author, Schiavo on the cutting edge:  functional brain imaging and its impact on surrogate end-of-life decision-making (2008) 1 Neuroethics 75.

Author, The Right vs. The Right to Die (2006) [nonfiction account of the Terri Schiavo case]

Co-Author, Bush v. Schiavo and the Separation of Powers: Why a State Legislature Cannot Empower a Governor to Order Medical Treatment When There is a Final Court Judgment That the Patient Would Not Want It, (2005) 7 J.L. & Soc. Challenges 81

Co-Author, Unmasking “crack_smoking_jesus”: Do Internet Service Providers Have a Tarasoff Duty to Divulge the Identity of a Subscriber who is Making Death Threats? (2003) 25 Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal (Comm/Ent) 683

Co-Author, Legal implications of the Wendland case for end-of-life decision making (2002) 176 Western Journal of Medicine 124

Co-Author, The Courts and the News Media (California Judges Association 7th ed. 2002) Chapter 6, Legal Research

Editor-in-Chief, Cal. Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Bulletin (The Rutter Group 1991-1993)

Action Guide: Handling Civil Appeals (1st ed. Cont.Ed.Bar 1985)

Remittitur in California Civil Appellate Practice (2d ed. Cont.Ed.Bar 1985)

Sanctions on Appeal: A Survey and a Proposal for Computation Guidelines
(1985) 20 U.S.F. L. Rev. 13

Contributing Editor (appellate practice), Civil Litigation Reporter (Cont.Ed.Bar 1983-1989)

1981-1984 Supplements to California Civil Appellate Practice (Cont.Ed.Bar 1966)

Lugosi v. Universal Pictures: Descent of the Right of Publicity
(1978) 28 Hastings L. J. 751

TEACHING

Adjunct Professor
Hastings College of the Law
California Appellate Process

Frequent MCLE programs
on appellate practice

William Hancock is admitted to practice in the California state courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

He has represented clients in significant cases, including successfully appealing a $20 million judgment in a construction accident case.  He currently represents Castaic Lake Water Agency on appeal in ongoing environmental challenges to its efforts to secure adequate water supplies for its customers in Northern Los Angeles County.

Mr. Hancock was a Senior Judicial Staff Attorney with the First and Sixth District Courts of Appeal from 1984 to 2001, and worked with a broad range of judges including Justice Ming Chin, Justice J. Anthony Kline, Justice Clinton White and Justice Joanne Parrilli. During his tenure with the court, Mr. Hancock assisted in drafting more than 700 opinions. He was also a founding staff member of the First District Appellate Project in San Francisco. 

In 2001, Mr. Hancock returned to private practice working for Horvitz and Levy, LLP, first as a contract attorney and then as of counsel. In 2004, Mr. Hancock established his own appellate practice, The Hancock Law Office, in San Francisco.  In 2006, Mr. Hancock joined forces with his long time friend and colleague, Jon Eisenberg, to found Eisenberg and Hancock, LLP. 

Mr. Hancock received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz, with honors, and his Juris Doctor from Hastings College of the Law, where he was Order of the Coif, a member of the Thurston Society, and an Articles Editor for the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review.

Mr. Hancock was selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer in 2009 and is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law where he teaches California Appellate Process.

Representative Cases: Korea Supply Co. v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 29 Cal 4th 1134 (2003) (amicus curiae); Klajic v. Castaic Lake Water Agency, 121 Cal App. 4th 5 (2004); Taylor v. Top of the Line (Second Dist. B146692; 2002 WL 31839385); Racicot v. CalFarm (Third Dist. C038839; 2003 WL 22222150);  England v. Swinerton Builders (First Dist., Div. Four A105313, 2005 WL 2065297); Friends of the Santa Clara River v. Castaic Lake Water Agency (Second Dist. B164027; 2003 WL 22839353); Pardee v. Jen-Weld Inc., (Fourth Dist., Div. One DO38856; 2004 WL 542546); California Water Network v. Castaic Lake Water Agency  (Second Dist., Div. Six;  2006 WL 726882); Robinson v. Superior Court (Sonoma) (First Dist., Div. One; 2007 WL 196882); Clark v. Optical Coating Laboratory (2008) 165 Cal.App.4th 150.

PUBLICATIONS:

Note, Liability for Transnational Pollution Caused by Offshore Oil Rig Blowouts (1982) 5 Hastings International and Comparative Law Review 377.