Dale Minami

Dale Minami

Dale Minami is a partner with Minami Tamaki LLP in San Francisco, specializes in personal injury and entertainment law. He was admitted to the California State Bar in 1972 and is also admitted to practice in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California , the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Minami received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Southern California and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1968. He received his J.D. in 1971 from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California.

His practice focuses on the area of Personal Injury and Wrongful Death, involving claims by persons who have suffered injury or the death of a close relative through the negligence of another party. Mr. Minami has handled personal injury and wrongful death cases for over 35 years, including claims resulting from auto accidents, pedestrians, defective products, slips and falls and other situations where persons were injured through the negligence of others. A number of these cases have resulted in verdict and settlement results of over $1 million. Mr. Minami has been recognized as one of the top personal injury lawyers in the Bay Area. He was selected by Law & Politics Magazine as one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers, in 2005, one of the Super Lawyers for 2004, 2005 and 2006 in Northern California in the Personal Injury category, one of the Top Lawyers in the Bay Area in the Personal Injury category by Bay Area Lawyer Magazine in 2006 and one of the 500 hundred Best Lawyers in America by Lawdragon Magazine in 2005.

Mr. Minami also represents clients in the entertainment industry, including Kristi Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic Gold Medal skater, CNN's Erica Hill, KPIX's morning anchor, Sydnie Kohara, reporters Anna Duckworth and Simon Perez, and weekend weatherman Lawrence Karnow, KGO's Carolyn Tyler, Heather Ishimaru, David Louie, and Vic Lee, KRON's Wendy Tokuda, playwright Philip Kan Gotanda and Oscar-awarded film maker Steven Okazaki. He is counsel to several community organizations, including the National Asian American Telecommunications Association and the Asian American Journalists' Association.

He has been involved in significant litigation involving the civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans and other minorities, including Korematsu v. United States, a lawsuit to overturn a 40 year old conviction for refusal to obey exclusion orders aimed at Japanese Americans during WWII, originally upheld by US Supreme Court in landmark decisions, United Pilipinos for Affirmative Action v. California Blue Shield, the first class action employment lawsuit brought by Asian Pacific Americans on behalf of Asian Pacific Americans, Spokane JACL v. Washington State University, a class action on behalf of Asian Pacific Americans to establish an Asian American Studies program at Washington State University and Nakanishi v. UCLA a claim for unfair denial of tenure which resulted in the granting of tenure after several hearings and widespread publicity over discrimination in academia.

Mr. Minami has served as a member of the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission and has chaired the California Attorney General's Asian Pacific Advisory Committee, advising the State's Attorney General on key issues. He was a Commissioner on the State Bar's Commission on Judicial Nominee's Evaluation, and on Senator Barbara Boxer's Judicial Screening Committee which made recommendations for Federal Judicial Appointments and was appointed by President Clinton as Chair of the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund in January, 1996. Currently, he serves on the Board of Kristi Yamaguchi's Always Dream Foundation and the Advisory Board of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation.

He has taught at U.C. Berkeley and Mills College in Oakland and was the Co-Executive Producer (with Philip Kan Gotanda) of 'Drinking Tea' and 'Life Tastes Good', both of which were screened at the Sundance Film Festival. He was also a co-founder of the Asian Law Caucus, Inc. a co-founder of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, the Asian Pacific Bar of California and the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans.

In recognition of his achievements, Mr. Minami has received numerous awards including the American Bar Association's 2003 Thurgood Marshall Award, the 2003 ACLU Civil Liberties Award, an honorary Juris Doctor degree from the McGeorge School of Law, and the designation of a dormitory at the University of California at Santa Cruz as the 'Queen Liliuokalani-Minami' Dormitory, among other awards.

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