Men of Accomplishment
Men of Accomplishment 2022
John Gomez
Gomez Trial Attorneys, founded by John Gomez in 2005, is becoming a national plaintiffs trial firm. It has opened an office in Tampa, Fla. Gomez will remain the firm’s lead trial attorney. He has been voted the number one trial attorney in San Diego, has been named the Plaintiffs Products Liability Attorney of the Year, a Class Action and Mass Tort Attorney of the Year, and Avvo rates him a 10.0 out of 10.0. Since 2000, he has recovered over $500 million in settlements and verdicts for his clients with more than 100 separate recoveries of $1million or more. He has obtained verdicts in excess of $1 million, $10 million, and $100 million. Most notably, he has obtained five separate jury verdicts of more than $1million in which the defendant offered nothing prior to trial. He also serves in a leadership role relating to numerous coordinated litigations involving defective drugs and medical devices. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, as well as a member of the Summit Council, a national group of the country’s finest trial lawyers for plaintiffs. He donates enormous time to charitable causes and coaches each of his kids in soccer and basketball. He was an All-American football player at the University of San Diego and is a graduate of the Yale University School of Law.
Michael A. Rizza
Passionate, driven, technical. Combined together you get one of the most approachable engineers you’ve ever come across, Michael Rizza. As cofounder, principal, and president of Rizza Engineering, Michael builds and maintains client relationships (a major company and client asset). A career spanning more than 26 years in electrical engineering, complimented by a background in electrical contracting and an extensive education in Architectural Engineering, he fully understands building design and construction. He leads the design team to craft turn-key designs for clients by blending his technical knowledge of power, lighting, low voltage, and renewables with his unique ability to visualize final installations. In addition to his Professional Engineering License, Michael has also earned the RCDD, CTS-D, and LEED AP designations. Coupled with his dedication to Rizza Engineering, Michael also finds time to spend with his family and serve his community by raising money for Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement, Shakti Rising, Promises2Kids, Toys for Tots, Poway Little League, and the ACE Mentorship. He has held several leadership positions including, past president of the Illuminating Engineering Society (SD Chapter), Cubmaster for the Boy Scouts of America and currently serves on the Advisory Council for the Architectural Engineering Department at Kansas State University, of which he is an alumnus.
Sean Spear
Sean Spear is actively working to create a more equitable San Diego by driving the efforts of Community Housing Works (CHW) to combat housing insecurity, arguably one of San Diego’s most prominent social issues. In his two years as president and CEO of CHW, a nonprofit affordable housing development firm, he has already made his voice heard through hard conversations with elected officials, local task forces and community organizations, all in an effort to find realistic and long-lasting solutions to housing insecurity. He leads the way in finding new solutions for problems that San Diego has faced for decades. He is chair of the advisory board for the San Diego Regional Task Force for the Homeless. CVHW’s newest housing community, the Keeler Apartments , recently won the San Diego Housing Federation’s Ruby Award for New Construction Project of the Year. Spear has served as lead partner in both the Neighborhood Next proposal to redevelop the Midway area and 13509 Front (State Office Building site) proposal in Little Italy. He secured $41.4 million in tax exempt bond authority from the State of California for the Kimball Highland Master Plan in National City. He is a graduate of Cornell University.
Nathan Schmidt
Nathan Schmidt is a dedicated, influential and innovative leader with over 20 years of financial services management and marketing experience. He is responsible for strategic planning, brand marketing, product development, business development and community and media relations and the overall customer experience at San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU), the 18th largest credit union in the country by assets and the largest locally-owned financial institution in San Diego. A cornerstone of Schmidt’s dynamic leadership is an unwavering focus on continually raising the bar on creativity, service, strategy and execution, resulting in exponential growth for SDCCU and impacting the overall credit union movement. Whether he’s implementing a marketing campaign or sponsoring a community organization or event, his ideas are big and his thought process is innovative. Under his leadership SDCCU’s unique blend of products and services is leading the way for overall credit union success. SDCCU proudly supports hundreds of community events or activities through San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties. The credit union has grown to $11.5 billion in assets and has over 434,000 members, a more than 92 percent increase in the nine years Schmidt has served as an executive vice president. He is a graduate of Sacramento State University and holds an MBA degree from St. Mary’s College .
Ronson Shamoun
Ronson Shamoun is San Diego’s leading tax attorney. He is the founder and chief executive officer of RJS Law firm. His practice includes federal and state taxation with an emphasis on criminal tax defenses, tax controversy, international tax, bankruptcy, and estate planning. He recently received the University of San Diego Mother Rosalie Clifton Hill Award for Service. The award is presented to a USD alum who personifies the spirit and philosophy of the university. He has generously contributed to the university with an annual scholarship to the USD Law School and to the School of Business. As an adjunct professor in the USD School of Law, he teaches Tax Practice and Penalties and Federal Tax Procedures an Policies. He co-founded the USD-RJS Law Tax Controversy Institute which brings together tax attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents and tax preparers to discuss the latest changes in tax law. He has been named a Man of Accomplishment and one of San Diego’s top attorneys for several years running . He has received USD’s Distinguished Alumni Award. RJD Law has been recognized as one of San Diego’s Most Innovative law firms. Shamoun holds three degrees from the University of San Diego: an undergraduate in accountancy, a master’s of law in taxation and his juris doctor from the USD School of Law.
Steve O’Connell
Steve O’Connell is president and chief executive officer of North Island Credit Union. Under his leadership for the past 10 years, North Island has achieved outstanding financial performance and introduced numerous innovations to achieve significant transformation, growth, and member service enhancements across every area of operations. Under his guidance, North Island’s 2021 financial performance was stronger than most peers in its industry. He serves as board member of the San Diego’s Classroom of the Future Foundation, an organization that bridges technology gaps for at-risk youth and provides school funding through private industry. Through his direction, North Island Credit Union contributed more than $600,000 in 2021 to assist hundreds of local schools, educators, military families, and community-based programs. Over the past five years under O’Connell’s leadership North Island has invested over $2 million in local communities, awarded $145,000 in 290 teacher grants, and provided $355,000 in college scholarships. North Island has new partnerships with the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Diego to support multiple programs. He is a graduate of Cal State Northridge.
Jim Heffner
Jim Heffner is a partner at Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP. He has a passion for learning, is hard-working and a strong and supportive mentor to the colleagues who surround him. He has gained recognition for winning case strategies in complex commercial litigation matters. Notably, he successfully defended a major class action brought by a former San Diego city attorney in both Superior Court and the Court of Appeals resulting in an award of defense fees of over $1 million. He was recruited to Hahn Loeser to help establish its first office in California. He has been instrumental in growing Hahn’s San Diego’s office, which now includes over 20 lawyers who carry on the firm’s reputation for excellence. He is a board member of the La Jolla Bar Association, the county bar association and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. He has been recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers and has earned James Martindale Hubbell’s top peer review rating of AV Preeminent. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Arizona State University and is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Gabe P. Wright
Gabe Wright is a partner at Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP and chair of the firm’s litigation practice group, and serves on the firm’s finance, strategic planning and diversity equity and inclusion committees. His litigation practice is specifically focused on complex and class action litigation, commercial litigation, and real estate litigation in which he zealously advocates for his clients, treating their business interests as if they were his own. He is skilled at protecting his clients’ business interests, defeating multi-million-dollar lawsuits and class actions. He is often called upon to come into complex cases to develop trial and settlement strategies to further clients’ interests .He defeated class certification of a California statewide class action alleging violations of the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Business & Professions Code against his client. He is an alumnus of the Louis M. Welsh Chapter of the Inns of the Court. He has earned the James Martindale Hubbell’s top peer view rating of AV Preeminent. He is a graduate of the Washington & Lee University School of Law..
William Eigner
William Eigner, a partner at Procopio law firm, has been called the “go to guy” for mergers and acquisitions and emerging companies. He serves as a catalyst for his clients’ success. His clients have grown from his involvement from a two-person start-up to public companies or acquisition targets in Silicon Valley, Europe and Asia. He serves as a director of EvoNexus and has been active in San Diego Venture Group and the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. He serves or has served on the boards of advisers of Encore Semi, eSub, Solyahealth, 3+2 Pharma LLC, Acenda and other companies. Eigner is a trustee emeritus of the San Diego Police Foundation, a former trustee and chairman of the La Jolla Town Council. His practice emphasizes M & A, venture capital, angel financing, seed capital and the financing, governing, operating, buying, selling and merging of growing and established companies. His practice includes work in various sectors, including telecommunications, software, cybersecurity, electronics, commerce/internet energy, clean technology life sciences, and medical devises. He holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.
Ross Young
Linewize
Naveen Waney
Platt/Whitelaw Architects
Zachary Myers
Wilson Sonsini
Sunny Jain
Sun Genomics
Daniel Gunning
Wilson Turner Kosmo
Robert Shields
Wilson Turner Kosmo
Kevin Brown
Snell & Wimer