Christopher Hanson

Who am I? Why do I do this? What does someone get when my staff and I are hired? Am I any good at this lawyer stuff? Will I win? Those are all good questions—and I even have answers for some of them.

I started my firm in the mid-1990s after the Savings and Loan implosion killed commercial real estate for about five years. Before that, I’d been selling commercial and residential real estate.

In 1978, I got my California real estate license and two years later, my broker’s license. In 1993, I was awarded the nationally recognized CCIM designation by the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute. In 1997, I was admitted to practice law in California and founded Hanson Law Firm.

I started the Firm to represent and defend real estate brokers, and it still does. I’ll also sue the pants off of them when it is appropriate to do so. I truly believe that the real estate professional ought to be professional and that a customer is entitled to rely on that presumed professionalism. If a broker or agent doesn’t live up to that standard and, as a result, damages a customer, then, well, they ought to be spanked.

Defending and suing brokers, and taking on cases they referred to us from their customers was and is a big part of my business. But as the market changed drastically, so did the Firm’s, and my, focus. When insurance carriers began making wholesale denials of claims made by my brokerage clients, I started suing the very carriers who were supposed to protect those brokerages. Successfully. Recent examples include a recovery of $1,000,000 for one brokerage client from a TOPA Insurance bad faith claim and a second $625,000 settlement from Lloyds of London on behalf of a client of a brokerage. As defense counsel, I’ve had plaintiffs’ attorneys sanctioned over $13,000 for filing frivolous lawsuits against my broker clients.

I’m an experienced trial lawyer, not just a litigator. I’m not afraid of (and actually enjoy) being in a courtroom. I’ve been called ingenious, tenacious, and strategic. I’ll take those accolades. The other side calls me a mean pain in the ass who acts like a junk-yard dog and creates “issues” just to cause them trouble. I really feel bad about that.

To give you a sense of who I am, I’ll share these few insights and experiences. At 6, I taught myself how to ride a bicycle by propping it up against the wall of the house and riding like hell down the driveway—praying I could make the corner onto the sidewalk and not go flying into the street. At 16, I learned how to SCUBA dive without knowing how to swim. At 32, I rode a motorcycle across the country for ten months, without ever having ridden before. At 34, I enrolled in a nighttime law school, and, while working fulltime, was still the editor-in-chief of the school’s law review, all with only one year of undergraduate credits to my name. Three years later, I started this law practice, which has grown to include additional attorneys, statewide, and has thrived for 15+ years. At 48, I decided sailboat racing was my next interest, so I crewed on several ocean races down the California coast. Because I remain a confirmed power boater, I recently applied for and received my USCG 100 Ton Master’s License. (No, I’m not changing careers again, to drive the Golden Gate Ferry.) The point is—I simply don’t believe in the phrase: “You can’t do that.”

I’ve won cases I should have lost and lost cases I should have won. I don’t give up. I don’t often give in. What I believe, more than anything else, is that if you’ve been wronged, you should be allowed to recover. If you hire me and my staff, you get our best effort. While that may not always be enough, it’s a lot. I’m happy to say that most of our clients have walked away from the gut-wrenching experience of a lawsuit knowing and feeling that we’ve done our very best for them.