Alan Lawrence VanGelder

focuses on business litigation, legal malpractice, and catastrophic personal injury. He has successfully represented clients in numerous high profile, complex cases, helping them to obtain multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements against major corporations, State and City governmental entities, law firms and celebrities.  Alan was instrumental in obtaining a stipulated judgment against Max Factor grandson and convicted rapist Andrew Luster. Alan also served as a member of the trial team in the matter of Rosiles v. County of Imperial and was instrumental in obtaining a $2,390,000 jury verdict against the County.  The Plaintiff, a truck driver named Antonio Rosiles, had been severely injured in a collision caused by a dangerous road obstruction created behind a blind curve by an Imperial County Road Crew.

In 2005 and 2008, Alan was named as an up-and-coming attorney in Southern California Rising Stars Magazine/Los Angeles Magazine, which is published by Law & Politics and lists the top 2.5 percent of noteworthy attorneys in Los Angeles and Orange Counties as voted upon by the Super Lawyers named by the magazine.

Alan is a member of the Consumer Attorneys of California and the Consumer of Attorneys Association of Los Angeles. He is also an actively involved with the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Los Angeles Chapter.

Alan is the author of "Surviving the Nightmare Scenario of the Lying Client" which was published as the lead article in the April 2006 issue of Forum Magazine.

Alan earned a B.A. degree in political science summa cum laude from California State University at Northridge in 1999, and was the recipient of the Senior of the Year Award, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Judge Julian Beck Award, Outstanding Senior in Political Science.

Alan received his J.D. magna cum laude from Southwestern University School of Law in 2002. He served on the Southwestern Law Review and was the author of Abolishing the Supervisor Exception to the Independent Employee Action Defense in Cal-OSHA Cases, 31 Sw. U.L. Rev. (2001). He was a best writer finalist during Southwestern's Moot Court 2000 Intramural Competition. Alan made the Dean's List in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. He was also the recipient of the Paul W. Wildman Scholarship, the Dean's Scholarship, and the CALI "Excellence for the Future" Awards for Legal Research and Writing (Fall '99 & Spring '00), Civil Procedure (Spring '00), Evidence (Fall '01), Legislation (Spring '01), and Administrative Law (Spring '02).