Cynthia McGuinn

Cynthia Bernet McGuinn is a partner at Rouda Feder Tietjen & McGuinn, a San Francisco plaintiffs' firm. She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1981 and holds an active license ^[1]. Her practice centers on personal injury litigation, including wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury, and product liability cases ^[2].

McGuinn represents a broad client base ranging from infants to the elderly, including industrial and trade workers such as ironworkers, operating engineers, electricians, plumbers, and truck drivers, as well as professionals including nurses, doctors, teachers, and judges. A substantial part of her work involves wrongful death actions and cases on behalf of clients with paraplegia, quadriplegia, or brain injuries ^[2]. A number of her jury trials have produced eight-figure verdicts, and in 2015 she obtained what was then the largest personal injury verdict in the history of Sonoma County. She also consults with and tries cases for other attorneys whose complex matters cannot be resolved before trial ^[2].

She earned her J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law in 1981 and a B.S. from the University of Akron. Before joining Rouda Feder Tietjen & McGuinn as a partner in 2009, she was a senior trial attorney at The Veen Firm, P.C. from 1989 to 2009 and previously practiced at The Law Offices of Cynthia Bernet.

In 2022, McGuinn was selected as Trial Lawyer of the Year by the California Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates ^[3], and in 2003 she was named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association ^[2][4]. In 1998 she became the first woman elected president of the San Francisco chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and in 2018 she was elected ABOTA's national president ^[2]. She has been included in the California Super Lawyers list every year since 2005 and in The Best Lawyers in America since 2008, and holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell ^[2][5].

McGuinn is a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers, the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and a member of the Consumer Attorneys of California, the American Association for Justice, the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, and the Bar Association of San Francisco. She writes and lectures on trial advocacy and has taught the subject at UC Berkeley and Harvard law schools ^[2].

Recognition

• Trial Lawyer of the Year — California Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates (2022) ^[2]
• Trial Lawyer of the Year — San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association (2003) ^[2]
• AV Preeminent — Martindale-Hubbell ^[2]