Howard M. Garfield

Meet Howard M. Garfield - Of Counsel

Honest | Helpful | Honorable 

Attorney Howard Garfield was born in New York City, he grew up in Los Angeles, attending elementary, junior and high schools there. At Fairfax High School he was active in drama, ROTC, student council and was president of the academic honor society. He received the American Legion Award as the most outstanding boy in his class.

After graduation, he matriculated at Columbia University in New York City, where he ended up first in his class at the end of his freshman year. Nevertheless, he pined for California and transferred to Stanford University for his sophomore, junior, and senior years.

At Stanford, he had the opportunity of attending Stanford's campus in Florence, Italy. There he studied art history, medieval European history, history of the Renaissance and, of course, the beautiful Italian language, which he still can read and speak. In other words, he became an Italophile. Howard has often said that at Columbia he learned to understand with his mind. In Italy, he learned to understand with his heart.

At Stanford he majored in Religious Studies, graduated as class valedictorian and then moved to the Harvard Divinity School. While there, he discovered that he was more interested in the law than religious studies and transferred to the Harvard Law School from which he was graduated cum laude.

Since graduation from Harvard, he has been continuously in the private practice of law, emphasizing civil litigation. This work has included insurance litigation (he has represented more than 25 different insurance companies and more recently insurance policyholders pursuing claims against their carriers). Additionally, he has extensively engaged in employment litigation (he has counseled management on employment matters, conducted investigations and tried arbitrations and cases in court). Last, but not least, he has handled numerous professional liability matters, principally claims against lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and brokers, corporate officers and directors, and disputes among members of limited liability companies and partners of general and limited partnerships.

Among his passions is the mentoring of newer lawyers.