Derek G. Howard has joined Minami Tamaki LLP as Senior Counsel, providing the firm with more than 25 years of experience in complex litigation, including expertise in class actions, business fraud, deceptive practices, breaches of fiduciary, elder abuse and ethical duties by corporate entities, and antitrust practices in major consumer-oriented industries.
Mr. Howard has served as lead counsel in newsworthy class action cases and obtained substantial awards through both jury verdict and pre-trial settlements. He has prosecuted precedent-setting class action cases against major Fortune 500 corporations, attaining newsworthy and groundbreaking monetary settlements. For the last four consecutive years, he has been honored as a “Super Lawyer” in Law & Politics Magazine, representing the top three percent of practitioners. As a result of previous verdicts and settlements, Mr. Howard has also qualified as a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.
Mr. Howard’s speaking engagements include current developments in the topics of electronic discovery, financial abuse and fraud on the elderly, investors, and trust beneficiaries. In conjunction with his membership in the Sedona Conference Working Group 1 on electronic discovery, Mr. Howard’s practice includes ongoing writing and editorial work on novel issues concerning discovery of electronically stored information (ESI) in complex litigation.
Speeches and publications include: Comment: “Nuclear Plant Construction after Pacific Gas: A Pyrrhic Victory for the States?” 14 Golden Gate University Law Review 39 (1984); “Survey: Interference Torts,” which the American Bar Association published through its Antitrust Section Committee on Business Torts and Unfair Competition; Interview, America’s Premier Lawyers Series (2006) discussing impact of new class action legislation; Presenter and Co-Author, AL I-ABA, Lawsuits from Both Sides Now, Representing Estate and Trust Beneficiaries and Fiduciaries (2008); Presenter, LegalTech 2009, New York, and LegalTech 2010, Los Angeles (2010) “May It Please the Court… Defending a Search and Production Protocol-a Trial Technology Experience”; Presenter, Legal Assistance for Seniors, Conference on Elder Abuse, “Current Developments in Financial Fraud and the Elders–How to Protect Elders and their Assets,” Oakland, California (2010).
Mr. Howard received his undergraduate education in 1980 from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his Juris Doctor in 1984 from Golden Gate University in San Francisco and a Masters Degree in Sport Management in 2009 from the University of San Francisco. Before joining private practice, Mr. Howard clerked for the Supreme Court of the State of Alaska for the Hon. John H. Dimond and was then appointed as Legal Research Attorney for the San Francisco Superior Court.
Mr. Howard has served as a Special Master in Marin County and is a member of the American Association for Justice, the Consumer Attorneys of California, the Sports Lawyers Association, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law and Unfair Competition.
Dale Minami 