Cynthia Bernet Mcguinn

From 1981 to the present Ms. McGuinn has specialized in representing injured persons, consumers and children in personal injury, wrongful death, professional negligence, and product liability matters against public and private entities.

She has developed a specialty in jury trial work and regularly tries to verdict single and multi-plaintiff cases for wrongful death, brain injury and other catastrophic injuries. Her representation in injury cases includes artists, airline mechanics, boiler makers,  children, carpenters, doctors, dentists, electricians, the elderly, emergency medical technicians, factory workers, farmers, homemakers,  ironworkers, librarians, models, masons, newborns, nurses, operating engineers, painters, risk managers, students, small business owners, tile setters, laborers, tree trimmers, truck drivers and salespersons. She has extensive trial experience litigating complex matters and has litigated to resolution over 1,000 cases. For a recap of some of her jury trial verdicts see "Cases."

The San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association honored Ms. McGuinn as the 2003 Trial Lawyer of the Year. In 2004 she was inducted as a Fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, an organization in which membership is limited to 600 lawyers worldwide who are nominated for fellowship based on superior trial and appellate advocacy skills, character and integrity, and services rendered in promoting the legal profession's best interests. From 2005 forward, Ms. McGuinn  has been  honored as one of the Top Women Litigators in California. 

Ms. McGuinn is a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers and the American College of Trial Lawyers, organizations in which fellowship is extended by invitation to experienced trial lawyers who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility, and collegiality.

She is also an Associate in of the American Board of Trial Advocates, where she sat as director of the national board from 1999-2002 and was the 2008 president of the San Francisco chapter of ABOTA.  A long time member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association and the Consumer Attorneys of California, Ms. McGuinn has sat as a board member in both organizations.

Ms McGuinn is an author and frequent lecturer to universities and legal organizations on the subject of trial practice.

Ms. McGuinn was born in 1949 in Ohio and raised in the Midwest. In 1978 she settled in California where she attended and graduated from Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco, receiving her Juris Doctorate in 1981. Her avocations include horses, cycling, scuba diving, skiing, or any other physical outdoor physical activity.  She also enjoys reading, traveling, and Italy. Her community-based service work is devoted to developmentally disabled children.