James “Jay” Devitt – Lead Attorney
James “Jay” Devitt has been a very successful attorney in Southern California for over 32 years.
During that time, he has handled over 3,000 civil cases. Jay has won over 100 jury trials while only losing 2.
The reason for his success comes down to three things:
Jay handles 98% of his own Court appearances. You will not be handed off to another attorney!
Jay is from the Midwest (Minnesota) and received his bachelor’s degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1979. He also attended Art Center in Pasadena and is a member of the Director’s Guild of America. This has helped him put together multimedia presentations for Juries with great results.
Jay attended Western State University Law School and graduated in 1988. He was published in Law Review, made the Dean’s list, the National Honor Roll and then aced Trial Advocacy and finished first in his class.
Jay went on to pass the California Bar Exam on his first attempt even though he finished 2 hours early and left! He was then recruited by numerous large and small law firms. Jay chose to work for the 70-lawyer firm of Spray, Gould & Bower where he won 90% of his motions in the law and motion department. He then met and married another attorney who comes from a family of attorneys and they are still together over 32 years later.
Jay is the President of the Malibu Bar Association and has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows discussing his cases or other legal issues, including CBS2, KCAL9, KNX and KXI. Mr. Devitt has been published or profiled in many publications including Los Angeles magazine, the Daily News (lawyer’s newspaper) NY Law Journal and he co-authored a column in Law Office Computing magazine. Jay is also an "unlicensed" private investigator and has given seminars and webinars about insurance issues to other investigators at PICA (Professional Investigators of California). http://pica-association.org/, where Jay is a member. Jay has been published and has lectured on the subject of “Bad Faith.”
After realizing that most Bad Faith trials come to the “battle of the experts,” Jay decided that he would only use the best experts to testify in his jury trials. After spending much time with these experts to prepare cases for trial, Jay became an expert himself and has been hired as a consultant for other lawyers and to be the Trial Lawyer on their Bad Faith cases.
Jay continues to give seminars to groups and has also worked as a Judge Pro Tem in the Van Nuys branch of the Los Angeles Superior Court. He has also donated hundreds of hours of work to various organizations including GOGI (Going in to Get Out) which is a group that helps prisoners change their lives.(See http://gettingoutbygoingin.org/)
Jay is also an animal rights advocate and is legal counsel to Saving K9Lives.(See http://www.savingk9lives.com/index.html) where he has helped dogs that need a “forever home”.
