Gregory G. Spaulding, Esq. brings over 40 years of experience as a distinguished trial lawyer to JAMS. As the founder of an AV-rated law firm, Mr. Spaulding has handled and supervised thousands of cases in diverse practice areas, including employment matters, medical negligence claims, business disputes, and trust and estate litigation. He has served as lead counsel in multiparty jury trials, estate disputes involving millions of dollars and catastrophic birth injury cases. He has represented clients in several high-profile cases, including matters involving the Doobie Brothers, Dana Carvey and several heirs of Jack London.

Mr. Spaulding’s people skills are one of his strongest assets. He takes pride in treating litigants and attorneys with dignity and respect. He brings focus to the work of finding an answer by listening carefully with empathy. Recognition of parties’ desires, and acknowledgement of the challenges and stresses of litigation, can produce significant changes to a position that seems firmly rooted.

The Sonoma County Bar Association selected Mr. Spaulding to receive the Michael F. O'Donnell Civility Award in 2024. In 2011, Mr. Spaulding received the Amicus Curiae Award, the highest honor given by the Sonoma County Superior Court. He was president of the Sonoma County Bar Association in 2017 and has served as a mediator, settlement conference panelist, and discovery and demurrer facilitator for the court for decades. During the pandemic, when the court shuttered the Mandatory Settlement Conference program, he maintained his focus on helping people and businesses solve their legal issues with a cost-effective and practical approach, and he took the initiative to revise and resurrect the program with remote sessions.

Mr. Spaulding taught health care law in the MBA program at the University of San Francisco and served for 15 years on the Bioethics Committee and the Institutional Review Committee at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. He also served for six years on the board of Legal Aid of Sonoma County and for 10 years on the board of the Northern California Center for Well-Being, including two years as board president at each organization. Before law school, he worked for five years providing employment counseling and job placement for people with disabilities.

Representative Matters

• Appellate
• Case addressing the reach of Evidence Code Section 1157, protecting peer review confidentiality in medical staff proceedings
• Self-represented attorney who sought appellate review of three trial court decisions over several years in case involving breach of fiduciary duty
• Case involving heirship, before both the California Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court
• Anti-SLAPP case, where sanction were considered by the Court of Appeal
• Dispute involving trial court’s approval of petition to modify trust
• Business Commercial
• Complex series of six cases involving the same parties arising from the ouster of one of the founders of a successful business by the other members of the C-suite; claims included employment, defamation, invasion of privacy and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Small business owner’s dispute with lessor regarding lease and government COVID restrictions
• Founders of very successful brewery in dispute with one founder, with cross-allegations involving inappropriate conduct and mismanagement
• Business partner resigned from failing enterprise, with protection and insurance against future claims, allowing him to maintain his professional practice without interference
• Civil Rights
• Excessive force claim against county detention facility
• Claim of failure to provide proper medical care to jail inmate
• Construction Defect
• General contractor and multiple subcontractors involved in condominium construction defect claim
• Homeowner in claim against builder of unique hillside home in California Contractors State License Board hearing
• Multiple condominium construction defect cases for various subcontractors
• Water and land rights dispute involving multiple parties on rural properties
• Claim by independent agency against public entity alleging failure to comply with public bidding regulations
• Employment Law
• Whistleblower claim by mechanic against wine touring company involving classification of independent contractor versus employee
• Age and national origin discrimination by Russian doctor when he was passed over for a younger non-Russian candidate for public health position
• Wrongful termination claim by founder of health clinic; issues included allegations that founder used inappropriate language in the workplace and sexually harassed co-workers
• Claim of failure to engage in the interactive process in disability discrimination matter against international company
• Estate Probate Trusts
• Dispute involving family members’ claim of attorney’s undue influence of 93-year-old woman with estate value of $25 million
• Paternity question in father-child relationship for three non-biological children, challenging their right to inherit estate
• Claim of lack of capacity over elderly couple’s efforts to live independently and free from the attorney’s control
• Dispute over $12 million estate involving 20 charities, two trustees and one family member; key question involved the validity of documents evidencing testator’s intent
• Trust dispute alleging lack of capacity and undue influence in large family
• Intellectual Property
• International telecommunications company in trade secrets dispute with startup competitor
• Dispute involving employee who left the company to form his own competing business
• Personal Injury
• Many injury and wrongful death cases involving public entities, premises liability and product liability, as well as other tort claims
• Insurance coverage disputes and indemnity claims
• Sexual misconduct cases, elder abuse claims, and psychological injuries, including PTSD
• Personal injury suit by passenger on train that collided with another train
• Wrongful death claim against hospital in medical negligence matter
• Multiple birth injury cases against doctors and hospitals
• Negligence case against lessor involving fire at an antique store
• Multiple automobile accident cases involving other vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles including underinsured and uninsured motorist claims

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

Memberships and Awards

• Sonoma County Bar Association, Michael F. O’Donnell Civility Award, 2024
• Sonoma County Bar Association Pro Bono Award, Lawyers in the Library Program, 2023
• Amicus Curiae Award, Sonoma County Superior Court, 2011
• Member, California State Bar, 1982-2024
• Admitted to United States Supreme Court, 1998
• Admitted to United States District Court for the Northern District of California, 1992
• Admitted to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, 2013
• Admitted to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2013
• Member, American Board of Trial Advocates: 2015–2024
• Member, American Bar Association: 1983–2023
• Member, Sonoma County Bar Association (SCBA), 1983–2024
  • Board Member, 1991–1993, 2010–2018
  • President, 2017
• Member, Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada, 1983–2023
• Member, Sonoma County Women in Law
• Panelist, Sonoma County Superior Court Programs (Settlement Conference, Discovery Facilitator, Demurrer Facilitator), 1993–2024

Nonprofit Volunteer Work

• Advisory Board Member, Roseland University Prep, 2015–2024
• Board Member, Legal Aid of Sonoma County, 2011–2016
  • President, 2013–2016
• Member, Civil Bench Bar Section, SCBA, 2006–2023
  • Chair, 2009–2012
• Board Member, Visiting Nurses Association
• Board Member, Northern California Center for Well-Being, 1996–2006
  • President, 2004–2006)
• Board Member, Community Resources for Independence (now Disability Services & Legal Center)
• Board Member, Minimizing Occurrences of Violence in Everyday Society (MOVES), 1995–2020
• Volunteer SCBA Lawyers in the Library Program 2017-2024
• Volunteer SCBA Pipeline Pods Mentoring Program 2023-2024
• Volunteer Food Relief Worker, Redwood Empire Food Bank, 2000–2023
• Member, Bioethics Committee, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital
• Member, Institutional Review Committee, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital
• Board Member, Montecito Meadow Owners Association, 1998–2001
• Volunteer, Rebuilding Together
• Member, Allocations Committee, United Way of the Wine Country

Seminars and Education

• Law Week Presenter (topical presentations on constitutional issues to area high school students, coordinated through the SCBA), 2014–2023
• Health Care Law Instructor, Master’s Degree Program, University of San Francisco, 1999
• Volunteer, Lawyers in the Library Program (through the SCBA, the Sonoma County Law Library and the Sonoma County Library System), 2017–2023
• Presented/coordinated multiple legal seminars through the SCBA
• Presented over 40 legal seminars to the North Bay medical community

Background and Education

• Founder, Managing Partner and Senior Trial Attorney; Spaulding McCullough & Tansil LLP; 1996–2023
• Founding Partner and Trial Attorney, Law Offices of Gregory G. Spaulding, 1992––1995 
• Trial Attorney and Partner; Achor, Miller & Spaulding; 1983–1992
• J.D., With Distinction, Southwestern Law School, 1982
• B.A., Political Science, Marquette University, 1975