Gary Neal Stern

Gary N. Stern is known as a lawyer’s lawyer, passionate about his clients and equally passionate about bringing honor, dignity and respect to the legal profession. For 38 years, he has been a trial and consumer attorney; primarily representing injured folks, particularly those victimized by health care negligence and elder abuse.  He has gained the respect not only of his colleagues on the plaintiff side of the legal profession but also on the defense side.  As a result, his career has included personal representation of doctors alongside the insurance company lawyers who are called on to defend health care practitioners sued for malpractice. Gary Stern has been committed to professionalism at every stage of a proceeding, earning the respect and admiration of opposing counsel, judges, mediators, arbitrators and his fellow trial lawyers.

Effective January 1, 2019, Mr. Stern will open "SternLaw", based in Woodland Hills.  He will turn his attention to a consulting and freelance practice; accepting a limited number of significant cases in the fields of health care negligence and elder abuse.  He is available to consult and work with lawyers who wish to outsource special projects and he will be available as a mediator and arbitrator.  Mr. Stern is also available for case evaluation and to serve as lead or co-counsel with colleagues Mr. Stern knows are just right for the particular client.   

He has tried and settled hundreds of cases resulting in six and seven figure recoveries. In a recent case Mr. Stern obtained over $7 million in long term annuities that will pay out over $40 million for a 20 year old student left a quadriplegic when emergency room doctors failed to recognize and treat a subdural hematoma. He obtained $5 million for two mine workers severely injured when a coupling failed on a construction boom. He obtained a successful result while on appeal in 1992 in a case that marked the first trial of a nursing home abuse case following the expansion of the law governing available damages for nursing home residents. In the mid 1990’s, Mr. Stern fashioned a settlement of a road design case in Moreno Valley that not only saw a wrongful death recovery for the parents of a 16 year old student killed while riding his bicycle to school, but resulted in a 10 year acceleration of the then new city’s general plan for installation of bicycle lanes that have undoubtedly saved many lives since those lanes were constructed.

Mr. Stern’s 38 years of legal experience began while he was earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA. He served as a Field Representative and Legislative Aide for Congressman Henry A. Waxman and Assemblyman Herschel Rosenthal, where his work was instrumental in passing legislation that protects renters from security deposit abuses and legislation that provides senior citizens with preference in civil trial date calendaring.

Mr. Stern is widely published in the areas of elder abuse and nursing home reform, disability discrimination, medical malpractice and the judicial arbitration system. In addition, he is a well-respected speaker on elder abuse law.

He is also a member of the American Association for Justice, the Consumer Attorneys of California and the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles where he has served on that organization’s Government Affairs Committee. In addition, Mr. Stern has served as Judge Pro Tem and Settlement Officer for the Los Angeles Superior Court.

A community activist, Mr. Stern has volunteered his time for a wide variety of organizations, including Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters Association of Los Angeles, the State of California Respiratory Care Board and the Glendale Crescenta Volunteers Organized in Conserving the Environment.

Mr. Stern is married to Sandy. His son Daniel is a special education teacher working with autistic children. His daughter Laura was a competitive figure skater and recently completed a 7 year career as a cast member with Disney on Ice as well as a public relations and media mentor for the Disney on Ice owners, Feld Entertainment.  She now works for a West Los Angeles entertainment public relations agency.