Law Offices of Sanford M. Cipinko

View the profile as it appeared in Northern California Super Lawyers 2008 (PDF)

Sanford M. Cipinko hails from Nebraska, where “Equality Before The Law” is the state motto. His trial skills and thoroughness have made equal justice a reality for his clients since 1979. With plain-spoken Nebraskan common sense, Cipinko brings jurors back to the basics: equality before the law, justice and full compensation for the injured and wronged.

Cipinko’s ability to connect with jurors and judges alike has resulted in extraordinary verdicts and settlements for his clients. In 2002, Cipinko was nominated as San Francisco’s Trial Lawyer of the Year after two trials in less than 30 days netted his clients jury awards of $1 million and $2 million. The defendants had offered only $75,000 and $85,000 to settle. He proudly recalls recovering $5 million for a woman who lost both legs after a settlement offer that was just 6 percent of the jury’s award. Cipinko won a $10 million settlement for a burn victim and $5.3 million for the family of a 57-year-old woman who was struck by a delivery van.

Convincing a jury takes more than talk. Cipinko uses cutting-edge technology to explain complex facts to jurors living in a visual world. He crafted an animation that brought his client’s cervical facet syndrome to life and helped jurors understand the impact of the repetitive spinal surgery required to treat it. The verdict for his client exceeded $2 million, the largest ever awarded for this ”invisible” injury.

Cipinko’s practice extends to the business arena as well. He and his firm bring a plaintiff’s outlook and trial skills to clients in a wide range of civil cases including fraud, business torts, contract breaches and professional malpractice. In 2006, Cipinko convinced a jury that a real estate developer had interfered with his clients’ opportunity to buy a commercial property. The developer stoutly proclaimed that he would never offer the plaintiffs one red cent, but when the jury rendered a $2 million award he quickly deeded over a $3.5 million property to avoid a punitive damages trial.

Cipinko has built a firm of highly talented lawyers and staff committed to achieving civil justice through aggressive trial advocacy. His colleague Timothy Perry is a trial and appellate attorney with more than 29 years of experience. After a six-week jury trial, Perry won a $2.1 million verdict for theft of his client’s marketing plan, more than 10 times the defendant’s settlement offer. When a nursing-home operator looted the business and left his patients literally shivering in the dark, Perry seized the home and secured a $1.5 million settlement for the victims. In another case he recovered a client’s life savings from a religious sect that had falsely promised to hold it in trust.

Through honest, persuasive advocacy, Cipinko’s firm obtains justice for its clients. Each case is prosecuted with strategic insight, personal attention and thorough preparation. The firm’s success rests on a simple maxim: “The truth is our most powerful ally.”