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    • Renée Welze Livingston
    • Craig A. Livingston
    • John C. Hentschel
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  • Contact
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Renée Welze Livingston
    • Craig A. Livingston
    • John C. Hentschel
    • Amy E. Blair
    • Paralegals
  • What we do
    • Catastrophic Injury & Wrongful Death
    • Product Liability
    • Trucking & Transportation
    • General & Premises Liability
    • Prop 65
    • Appellate
    • Construction
    • Real Estate & Disability Access Litigation
    • Business & Commercial
  • What's New
  • Contact
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Craig A. Livingston
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“One of my greatest strengths is the ability to develop and implement a unique, often nuanced, strategy for each case and client with the goal of reaching the most favorable resolution at the earliest opportunity. And when that resolution requires a trial, my clients know they will get 110% from me and my trial team every time.”
Contact Information:
Phone: (925) 952-9880
Fax:  (925) 952-9881
Email 

Printable CV
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Biography

Craig is a nationally recognized product liability trial lawyer who represents domestic and international manufacturers and distributors in matters throughout the country. Craig is a long-standing Sustaining Member of the Product Liability Advisory Council and has, for over two decades, served as national coordinating counsel and national trial counsel for a number of manufacturers and distributors. Craig has appeared in more than 20 states for clients as local, regional or national counsel. He also works closely with clients on risk management strategies, including issues surrounding product warnings and instructions. Craig has tried many high-exposure cases to verdict in both state and federal courts involving a wide-range of products. He is an authority on firearms litigation and is frequently called upon to brief and argue the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act in state and federal courts. Craig is also an authority on California's Prop 65 and works with clients on compliance issues in defense of enforcement actions. Craig is regularly a featured speaker for defense lawyer groups on such issues as product liability defense strategies, catastrophic injury and wrongful death and trial tactics. Craig is a 5.0 (A-V Preeminent) rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell and has been selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer since 2007.​

Publications

  • Using Prior Consent Judgments as a Shield Against California's Onerous New Prop 65 Internet and Catalog Warning Regulations, NAMWOLF Newsletter, 2Q 2019
  • Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Strategies for Successfully Moving to Change Venue Based on Inconvenience (Co-Author Crystal L. Van Der Putten), ADC Defense Comment, Summer 2017
  • Finding Fault with Ault: Why The Exclusion of Subsequent Design Change Evidence In Product Liability Cases Makes Sense, Even In California, IADC Defense Counsel Journal, July 2011
  • Lessons From Jury Research:  The Mythical “Safe Company” Standard And How Product Liability Defendants Can Measure Up, IADC Product Liability Committee Newsletter, 2003
  • Defending America’s Manufacturers:  Challenges, Rewards and Successful Strategies, Inside the Minds: Leading Product Liability Lawyers – Industry Insiders on the Art & Science Behind A Successful Product Liability Practice, Aspatore Books, 2003 (contributing author)
  • Firearms Litigation in 2002 and Beyond, VerdictSearch Products Liability Report, 2003
  • National Coordinating Counsel: Controlling Product Liability Exposure and Defense Costs, For the Defense, Defense Research Institute, 2001 (Recipient of the 2002 G. Duffield Smith Outstanding Publication Award from DRI)
  • Admissibility of Evidence of the Absence of Prior Similar Accidents in Product Liability Cases, CEB Program Handbook, California Continuing Education of the Bar, 2000

Speaking Engagements

  • Prop 65 Update, SAAMI Logistics & Regulatory Affairs Committee Meeting, SHOT Show 2019
  • The “Safe Company” Trial Theme, Product Liability Advisory Council Fall Conference, 2015
  • Effective Use of CACI Product Liability Instructions: Using Lemons to Make Lemonade, Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada Annual Meeting, 2013
  • California Update: Product Liability Law, National Business Institute, 2012
  • Preparing and Trying the Personal Injury Case, National Business Institute, 2009
  • Effective In-House Witness Preparation: Understanding, Promoting and Implementing Meaningful Corporate “Buy-In,” Product Liability Advisory Council Fall Conference, 2007
  • Personal Injury Case Management for Seasoned Litigators, National Business Institute, 2007
  • The Psychology of In-house Expert Witness Preparation and Testimony and The “Safe Company” Theme, Product Liability Advisory Council Spring Conference, 2006

Published Options

  • Adames v. Sheahan (2007) 378 Ill.App.3d 502.
  • Adames v. Sheahan (2009) 233 Ill.2d 276 cert. denied sub nom. Adames v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp. (2009) 175 L.Ed. 634.
  • Delana v. CED Sales, Inc. d/b/a Odessa Gun & Pawn (2016) 486 S.W.3d 316 (Missouri Supreme Court).

Professional Associations

  • Product Liability Advisory Council​, Sustaining Member
  • International Association of Defense Counsel
  • Defense Research Institute
  • State Bar of California
  • Contra Costa County Bar Association

Professional Activities

  • ​Settlement Mentor, Contra Costa Superior Court
  • Consultant to the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute. 

Bar Admissions

  • United States Supreme Court - 2009
  • State Bar of California - 1990
  • U.S Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit - 1990
  • U.S. District Courts                        
    ​             Northern District CA - 1990
                 Eastern District CA - 1994
                 Central District CA - 1999

                 Southern District CA - 2008

Personal

​A Bay Area native, Craig spent five years in municipal law enforcement before attending law school. He is passionate about his cooking (he makes a fantastic porcini mushroom risotto and truly authentic seafood gumbo), vegetable gardening and wine making (with the attendant wine consumption), and he enjoys traveling, hiking and golf (though his index does not reflect it).​ 
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International Association of Defense Council
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Education
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University of San Francisco
​School of Law

Juris Doctor  • May 1990
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University of California
​Santa Barbara

Bachelor of Arts
Law and Society • June 1982
 Livingston Law Firm  - 1600 South Main Street,  Suite 280,  Walnut Creek, CA 94596   
Telephone:  (925) 952-9880 ​  Facsimile::  (925) 952-9881