Frank F. Sommers, IV

Frank Sommers is a former IBM Systems Engineer turned trial attorney. He specializes in taking over complex cases close to trial and winning them. His experience in trying cases for Bank of America has made him fluent in the complexities of complex corporate financial transactions. This background in computer systems and business finance makes him highly qualified in translating complex cases to lay juries. Mr. Sommers has also handled a broad, diverse range of complex business litigation matters, successfully taking complicated cases to juries throughout the Bay Area. For example, his work has included prosecuting a large copyright infringement claim for a start up software company and representing a glass machine operator in a products liability case. Mr. Sommers has also handled intellectual property licensing disputes and securities arbitrations. He has represented a Russian Orthodox nunnery in its secession from the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, a battle focusing on control of the nunnery’s valuable real property. He secured a high six-figure jury award for a wrongfully-terminated senior executive of a medical device manufacturer. As a former IBM Systems Engineer, he is particularly at home with disputes involving systems development and integration problems, and recently represented a start-up middleware developer seeking to recover for over-installation of the licensed software. Mr. Sommers also handles insurance bad faith matters on first and third-party claims. His transactional practice, which draws on his experience in starting and running two small businesses himself, involves software licensing and advising start up companies.

Mr. Sommers is an expert in the field of electronic evidence presentations of documents, witness testimony, and trial graphics design. He is regularly consulted by other law firms seeking to improve their trial presentations. He has taught extensively as a clinical instructor at seminars and presentations of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy around the country. Sommers & Schwartz LLP offers cost-effective, state-of-the-art jury presentation for all trial levels.

Before founding Sommers & Schwartz LLP, Mr. Sommers was in private practice for ten years and also served as trial counsel for Bank of America's Office of General Counsel. During that time he tried matters involving claims of software theft, lender liability and real-estate-development fraud. He litigated matters ranging from computer servicing errors in a multi-billion dollar student loan pool to earth movement insurance coverage on a seventy unit condominium development in Ventura, California. Mr. Sommers has lived abroad and speaks German, Russian and French. He draws on this experience in advising domestic and European clients on various corporate and financial matters.

Some representative cases on which Mr. Sommers has served as trial or lead counsel are: 1) investigating the failure of EDS's design and programming services in its attempt to replace a national bank's computerized securities trading system; 2) bad faith claims against UNUM/Provident Insurance Company arising from its denial of mental disability claims under policies issued in California; 3) suits by a corporate client to enjoin unlicensed copying of its internally-designed electronic and consumer goods.

Mr. Sommers is a member and board member of the San Francisco Lawyers Club Inn of Court, for which he organizes and presents demonstrations on various aspects of trial practice. A Judge pro tem for the San Francisco Superior Court, Mr. Sommers also provides pro bono services to the Volunteer Legal Service Clinic of the San Francisco Bar Association.

Mr. Sommers received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center cum laude in 1982. He received a B.A. in Government with a minor in Russian Language from Dartmouth College in 1977. Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Sommers was president of a software design firm, and has since served as CEO of a direct mail services company in San Francisco.

Andrew H. Schwartz

Andrew Schwartz is known for his ability to master complex legal problems and devise efficient, client-centered strategies, to obtain good, economic results. He has extensive trial and appellate experience in both federal and state courts, as well as mediations and arbitrations.

Mr. Schwartz’s practice has ranged from suing San Francisco on behalf of a class of taxi owners for claims arising from changes to a clean-air program to defending a prominent, national research institution wrongfully charged with failure to adequately inform a drug study patient. He has represented a crab processor faced with civil RICO claims and handled a large executive wrongful termination matter. His business litigation work ranges from business purchase disputes to advising bankruptcy creditors committees on ‘approaching insolvency’ issues. He practices in state and federal courts, defending a well-respected criminal defense attorney faced with legal malpractice claims arising from post-conviction relief work by the attorney. Mr. Schwartz also handles multi-state litigation arising from telecommunications vendor service disputes.

Mr. Schwartz specializes in both plaintiffs’ and defense general business litigation, civil RICO, executive wrongful termination, unfair business practice matters, trust and fiduciary litigation, and lending, financing and investment mismanagement litigation.

Prior to forming Sommers & Schwartz LLP, Mr. Schwartz spent fifteen years directing Bank of America’s largest exposure cases and a portfolio of medium sized cases. Both taught him how to identify the lynchpins of litigation in order to drive cases to successful economic conclusions for his clients, rather than applying across-the-board discovery and motion practice to every case.

At the Bank, Mr. Schwartz obtained successful settlements of a range of securities matters, including the largest cases ever brought against the Bank. He also effectively dealt with numerous consumer unfair business practices actions, False Claims Act matters, and trust and fiduciary cases that centered on fee overcharges, financing, investment and operational issues. He has arbitrated and tried numerous cases to successful conclusions.

Mr. Schwartz’s past experience also extends to the private law firm and public sectors. He was previously affiliated with Coblentz, Patch, Duffy and Bass, where he dealt with disputes involving several partnership dissolutions, intellectual property, and unfair business practice claims. He had a varied litigation practice with Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May. And with his first firm in New York, he gained extensive trial and appellate experience under now U. S. District Court Judge Neil McCurn. His started his career with the United States Department of Commerce, working on government contract litigation.

Mr. Schwartz was born in Maplewood, New Jersey in 1950. He received his B.A. from the University of Rochester with high honors and was Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his JD from Cornell Law School, where he wrote a Note leading to the nationwide recognition of the right of non-English speaking defendants to interpreters at trial and pre-trial proceedings. He is a member of the California, New York and District of Columbia Bars.

Mr. Schwartz has lectured widely on the attorney-client and bank examiner privileges. He was a member of the ABA Task Force on Client Concerns, and chaired the Ethics sub-committee of the ABA’s litigation section in the nineties. He is also a member of the San Francisco Lawyers Club Inns of Court.