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Philip A. Pereira
Mr. Pereira graduated from U.C. Davis in 1971 with degrees in History and English Literature. Thereafter, he worked in sales for a period of time. He put himself through Santa Clara University Law School at night and graduated in 1978 with a Juris Doctorate degree. He also passed the California State Bar in 1978.
From 1978 to 1980, Mr. Pereira was an associate with the business litigation firm of Clark & Glennon. From 1980 to 1985, he did insurance defense and plaintiffís personal injury work for the law firm of Collins & Zapala. Mr. Pereira was then a partner at the law firm of Williams, Kelly, Polverari & Skelton where he worked from 1985 through 1994. From 1994 through March of 2005, he worked as house counsel for the California Casualty Management Company. He was general counsel for the SIU Department and also served as an Assistant Vice President. Mr. Pereira joined the Law Offices of McDowell, Meshot & Shaw in March of 2005 and opened up the Santa Clara County office in Sunnyvale.
Since 1980, Mr. Pereira has handled virtually every kind of insurance matter, including EUOs, bad faith defenses, coverage opinions, declaratory relief actions and UM claims. Since that time also, he has handled hundreds of third-party insurance defense suits, which have ranged from small personal injuries to wrongful deaths, cognitive deficits, sexual harassments, legal malpractice and malicious prosecution matters.
On the SIU front, Mr. Pereira has defended scores of fraudulent claims, including soft tissue/medical build-up cases, staged accidents, stuffed passengers, arson, vehicle thefts and homeowner losses.
Mr. Pereira has also been involved with cross-complaining against and prosecuting fraudulent claimants and has assisted law enforcement from time to time in those endeavors.
He has been a member of the Santa Clara County Bar Association since 1978 and the San Mateo County Bar Association since 1994.. He has been a member and guest lecturer for the Northern California Fraud Investigatorís Association since the mid-1980s. Additionally, he has taught Legal Research and Analysis for paralegals at San Jose State University.
Over the past 27 years, Mr. Pereira has been involved in dozens of trials, hundreds of arbitrations and thousands of depositions and EUOs.
Practices
Civil Litigation and Trials
First Party SIU Investigations
Examinations Under Oath
Education
University of California at Davis, B.A., 1971
University of Santa Clara, J.D., 1978
Sunnyvale Office