Biography

Born and raised in San Jose, Chris Nielsen graduated from the University of the Pacific in 1976, and Pepperdine University School of Law in 1979. He was admitted to the California Bar in 1979 and was a senior shareholder with the San Jose firm of Robinson and Wood until 2008.

In 2008 he took the unusual step of leaving his former firm to teach part–time in the public school system (which he continues to do), practice law on select cases and lecture on trial practice techniques and substantive tort law. He is active as an officer and board member of the Alamaden Valley Counseling Service, a non–profit agency providing mental health services for local families and individuals.

Courtroom artwork of Al Sharpton
 

Courtroom artist Jane Rosenberg captures The Rev. Al Sharpton on the witness stand. Sharpton was a defendant in a defamation action filed against him and others after he and Tawana Brawley accused Assistant District Attorney Steven Paggones of raping her. Paggones was awarded $345,000 in damages and Sharpton was personally liable for $65,000. Rosenberg has sketched other luminaries such as John Gotti and Woody Allen.

Copyright © 1998 Jane Rosenberg.


Professional honors and teaching experience

Chris has repeatedly been honored as a “Super Lawyer” of Northern California by the Law & Politics magazine (2004 – present). He was named as one of the “Best Lawyers in the Bay Area” (Commercial Litigation) by the Bay Area Lawyer magazine in 2005.

He is a member of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California, is an Advocate level member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and is certified in California as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (certified in 1997, and re–certified in 2002 and 2007). He has an AV rating, the highest rating available, from Martindale–Hubbell the national peer–reviewed legal directory.


Teaching Experience:

He has lectured for the Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) since 1988 and has instructed courses on litigating the wrongful death case, effective direct and cross examination of witnesses, cross examination of expert witnesses, cross examination for the experienced litigator, punitive damages, jury selection techniques and the use of jury consultants, effective opening statements and closing arguments, the Jeffersonian approach to evidence, and proving economic and non–economic damages in both tort and commercial cases. He is a lecturer in the trial advocacy program at Santa Clara Law.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.”

–Albert Einstein