Gerald C. Sterns
Gerald Sterns currently focuses his practice on plaintiff's litigation referrals on major aviation, products liability, and other catastrophic claims, both nationally and internationally. In a state containing more than 200,000 attorneys, Gerald Sterns was named by California Lawyer magazine as one of the top 25 attorneys in the state. Mr. Sterns has been selected for inclusion to Northern California SuperLawyers, and has been listed in Best Attorneys in America since its inception. He is a 35-year Fellow in the International Academy of Trial Attorneys, an organization limited to 500 of the top trial attorneys worldwide as selected by peer review and judicial endorsement. Mr. Sterns' 35-plus years of courtroom experience have helped him become one of the few aviation attorneys whose wins against major airlines have been affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.
Prior to opening his own practice in 1977, Mr. Sterns was the Aviation partner in the San Francisco law firm of Walkup, Downing & Sterns. Mr. Sterns has authored numerous articles and professional papers, and has been a speaker or panelist on numerous professional programs, both in the U.S. and abroad. He has served for 17 years on the faculty at San Francisco Law School, and has been interviewed on a number of television and radio programs, including 60 Minutes, 20/20, Wolf Blitzer, Fox News, CNN, BBC, and numerous other television news programs worldwide.
Gerald Sterns has also been honored in print. From The Last Nine Minutes of Flight 981, a best-selling book about the DC-10 Turkish Airlines crash: "Sterns ambled into court a living expression of the California Legal System. He had been trained in it. He believed in it. And he applied it with deadly effectiveness."
Education:
- J.D., with honors, University of California, Hastings College of Law
- Editor of the Law Review
- Order of the Coif
- B.S.C., State University of Iowa
Admissions:
- State Bar of California
- State Bar of Hawaii
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
- United States Supreme Court
- Pro hac vice in over 20 other jurisdictions
Professional Associations/Memberships:
- Bar Association of San Francisco
- Alameda County Bar Association
- American Bar Association (Chair, Tort and Trial Practice Section, 2003)
- The State Bar of California
- International Academy of Trial Lawyers (Fellow)
- Association of Trial Lawyers of America
- Lawyers Club of San Francisco
- American Board of Trial Advocates (Diplomat)
- Society of Air Safety Investigators
- American Judicature Society
- American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys
- San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association
- California Trial Lawyers Association (former Member at Large, Board of Governors)
Reported Cases:
- King v, Cessna Aircraft, 562 F.3d 1374 (11th Cir., 2009)
- Katsuko Hosaka v. United Airlines, 305 F.3d 989 (9th Cir., 2002)
- Husain v. Olympic Airways, 316, F.3d 829 (9th Cir., 2002)
- Olympic Airways v. Husain, 540 U.S. 644; 124 S. Ct. 1221 (2004); 157 L. Ed. 2d 1146
