His practice includes commercial litigation, complex casualty and general liability, public-entity defense, coverage and counsel disputes, and entertainment-business, sports, venue, and live-event litigation. Jonathan handles matters from early assessment through verdict, including expert-intensive discovery, corporate and expert depositions, dispositive and evidentiary motions, mediation, settlement strategy, and trial preparation. He is also frequently brought into difficult matters at critical inflection points to reset strategy, address immediate risk, and restore disciplined case control.
Jonathan has tried multiple jury cases to verdict and has served as lead or co-trial counsel in personal-injury, premises-liability, and other high-exposure civil matters. His trial results include defense verdicts and verdicts below defense statutory settlement offers. He has taken and defended scores of party, corporate-representative, treating-physician, and expert depositions and has negotiated numerous matters to favorable resolution. His courtroom experience informs his advice from the outset: he evaluates liability, causation, witnesses, experts, settlement authority, and motion strategy according to how each will affect the ultimate trial posture.
Before joining GRSM, Jonathan served as in-house trial counsel for two major national insurance carriers. In those roles, he defended insureds in personal-injury and high-exposure civil litigation, worked directly with claims professionals, assessed exposure and settlement value, and handled matters through deposition, mediation, settlement conference, and jury trial. That experience gives him a practical understanding of how institutional clients evaluate risk, develop settlement authority, and use counsel to make sound litigation decisions.
Jonathan’s trial practice is reinforced by substantial appellate experience. He served more than four years as lead appellate counsel for the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, presenting federal appellate oral arguments that resulted in published decisions. He later represented clients before the California Courts of Appeal, the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. His written advocacy includes an amici curiae brief cited by Justice Alito in Groff v. DeJoy, 600 U.S. 447 (2023). During his federal service, Jonathan was competitively selected as a Congressional Fellow and advised a senior Member of Congress on legislative funding and appropriations matters.
