Professional Background and Accomplishments
Mr. Booth is an AV rated litigator and has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer multiple times. He has significant experience in several areas of law, earned over 30 years of practice, specializing in high exposure, complex civil litigation. Mr. Booth has defended, led, and tried numerous complex, multi-defendant product liability cases involving significant injuries and damage claims, often in a manufacturing or other industrial setting, arising from a failure to warn regarding allegedly toxic chemicals or other allegedly hazardous substances.
Mr. Booth has handled many other high exposure personal injury and wrongful death claims stemming from traumatic brain injuries, electrocutions, severe burns, industrial accidents, and any number of other alleged injuries, illnesses, conditions, and syndromes. For example, Mr. Booth successfully defended a major metropolitan school district at trial against a claim of child abuse brought on behalf of a special needs child, resulting in an 11-1 jury verdict for the school district after a 4-week trial.
Mr. Booth also handles construction defect matters, ranging from single-family homes, to apartment buildings and complexes, to commercial buildings, to subway stations. He has represented a wide variety of construction industry contractors, subcontractors, professionals, manufacturers, suppliers, vendors, and related trades. In particular, Mr. Booth is adept at navigating the sea of contractual and indemnity-based relationships between the various parties to a construction project, and the related insurance issues arising therefrom. He has long-standing relationships with industry experts who can provide consultation, evaluation, and effective presentation of the client’s position.
Mr. Booth also has significant experience in environmental law and litigation. He has represented various clients against environmental regulatory actions and private enforcement lawsuits, regulatory violation cases, and criminal prosecutions relating to environmental contamination issues. Mr. Booth has a long history of successful negotiations with regulatory and municipal authorities as well as private and non-profit enforcement lawyers (such as the various members of the Waterkeepers Alliance) regarding alleged environmental violations.
In particular, Mr. Booth has developed a specialty in the law relating to Stormwater – i.e. potentially contaminated urban run-off. Mr. Booth has published several articles on the subject and spoken frequently regarding general regulatory compliance and enforcement issues, and in particular, regarding the challenges faced by auto recycling, metal recycling, and winery operations.
Mr. Booth has also worked in and around the insurance industry for much of his career, and is intimately familiar with the close relationship between insurance and civil litigation. Mr. Booth represents clients on behalf of most major insurance companies including Nationwide, Travelers, Starr, Brandywine/Chubb, Farmers, AIG, and Zurich. Mr. Booth is thoroughly familiar with insurance industry standards, practices, billing and coding requirements, reporting obligations, and file management.
In addition to the California state, federal, and appellate courts, Mr. Booth has been admitted to practice in Nevada since 1997.
Publications and Speaking Engagements