Steven Ray Guess

Steven R. Guess is a trial attorney who concentrates his practice on public agency litigation. Mr. Guess also provides general counsel advice to his public agency clients on a wide variety of matters.

Mr. Guess has handled all aspects of litigation in a number of different areas of law, including: eminent domain and valuation, constitutional law, proposition 218, water rights, election law, political law, intellectual property and patent infringement, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, interference with contract and prospective economic advantage, landlord-tenant, disparagement of title, slander, construction defect, products liability, and employment discrimination.

Representative Matters:
* As lead trial counsel, Mr. Guess defeated a senior partner of one of the largest law firms in Southern California in a $2.75 million complex eminent domain jury trial. The jury awarded $191,000 for the property acquired, only $16,000 more than the pre-litigation offer.

*In a case that made statewide news, again acting as lead counsel Mr. Guess represented a public agency on a Proposition 218 property-related fee case. Mr. Guess successfully convinced the court in a bench trial to find that water rates are not subject to a referendum where they are adopted as an urgency measure and where the referendum would interfere with an essential government service, like safe drinking water.

*Mr. Guess successfully petitioned the Legal Services Corporation ("LSC") in Washington D.C., to declare all Legal Aid Board Meetings public and to require Legal Aid programs to provide notice of their Board Meetings in a manner reasonably calculated to be viewed by the public.  This nationwide decision will assist the poorest and most vulnerable in our society by enabling them to bring their complaints and concerns directly to the Board without a staff filter.  Mr. Guess hopes that this decision will improve quality and access across the nation, and incorporate the views of the poor in a  broad array of Board decisions, including budgetary priorities of legal aid programs.  In 2017, LSC estimated 63 million people across the nation were eligible for Legal Aid services.   The opinion:

While in law school, Mr. Guess worked as Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Business Law Journal, and received a number of distinctions for oral advocacy in Moot Court Competitions, including an Outstanding Achievement in Oral Advocacy Award from the 2009 Traynor Moot Court Competition.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Guess worked as a Judicial Extern for the Honorable Stuart Pollak in the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District as well as the Honorable Susan Illston in United States District Court, Northern District of California

Community Involvement: 
• Board of Directors, Legal Aid Society of Orange County (2011-2017)