We would like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of our attorneys, paralegals, secretaries and support staff, without whom we could not have achieved the extraordinary record of successful trials, arbitrations, summary judgments and favorable settlements we achieved during the past year. 2007 has been an exciting year for DAR. Robert Armstrong, Terry Rowland and Michael Wade were again recognized by Los Angeles Magazine as Southern California Super Lawyers, a recognition of the top 5% of attorneys in Southern California. Bjorn Green was also honored as a "Rising Star" by Los Angeles Magazine. Terry Rowland was also inducted into the Litigation Counsel of America at its Spring Conference in New York. The LCA is a highly selective,"invitation only" honorary society of trial and appellate lawyers and Fellows are selected based upon their effectiveness and accomplishments in litigation and superior ethical reputation.

On the trial front, the firm continues to enjoy an enviable record of success. James Lemieux's trial in Barnett v. First National Insurance resulted in a significant win as he obtained a defense verdict following a 22 day trial in a hotly contested bad faith case after the plaintiffs rejected a $100,000 CCP 998 offer shortly before trial and demanded $8.2 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Bjorn Green spent much of this year in trial, obtaining a very favorable verdict following a 3 month construction defect trial in Orange County. Plaintiffs lowest demand was $1.8 million and the jury verdict as to all defendants was only $640,000. Of that, our client was responsible for $183,000, which was close to our request to the jury and $130,000 less than what the plaintiffs asked for.

Sean Beatty has racked up an impressive series of defense verdicts this year, including verdicts in favor of Toyota Motor Sales following a 5 day jury trial in Placer County and a 4 day jury trial in San Bernardino. He also obtained a judgment against Southern California Edison in favor of Surf Liquor, Inc. after a jury returned a verdict in favor of Edison which was substantially lower than the defendant's CCP 998 offer. Defendant was also awarded attorney fees.

Congratulations to Cindy Palin for her successful argument before the 9th Circuit in Vervoorn v. Safeco Insurance Company.

Finally, DAR also continued with its tradition of giving back to the community in 2007. In addition to Mike Wade's election as National President of AYSO, Robert Armstrong was re-elected as President of the Board of Directors of Interval House Crisis Shelters. Andres Hurwitz was also re-elected to a 3 year term as a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation Board of Directors and was recognized by the Presiding Judge of Los Angeles County for his service as a Judge Pro Tem.