J. Morrow Otis

For over 30 years, Mr. Otis has represented major Bay Area financial institutions, real estate owners and developers, apparel manufacturers, waste management companies as well as numerous other companies and individuals in complex commercial and business litigation and lender liability cases.

Representing Barclays Bank of California, Wells Fargo Bank, and Barclays Bank PLC, he defended a class action alleging excessive bank charges for returned checks for insufficient funds, various actions for breach of contract, numerous lender liability cases, a case alleging improper international money transactions under the Federal EDGE Act and numerous other cases.  For such companies as Waste Management, Inc. and USA Waste, Inc., he was retained to conduct statewide franchise enforcement actions throughout the State of California.  Mr. Otis represented Nike, Inc. and Cole Haan in numerous cases alleging defect in shoe construction.  He also defended Metreon and Sony Corporation in landlord tenant disputes as well as an action for recovery of commercial real estate broker’s fees.

Mr. Otis represented a global sports apparel company in numerous product defect cases and also brought a sexual harassment case to successful resolution.  He also regularly represents executives in negotiating compensation packages as well as severance agreement terms.

As a result of Mr. Otis’ experience in securities litigation, he was appointed by Judge Stanley A. Weigel and the Securities and Exchange Commission to act as Receiver of the Diamond Growth Mutual Fund.  For the six years that followed, he managed the Fund, initiated and managed litigation involving recovery of Fund assets, supervised all fund investments and eventually dissolved the Fund and distributed assets to shareholders.

Mr. Otis’ construction litigation experience also includes the representation of general contractors, subcontractors, at-risk construction managers, architectural firms, and owners.  He has represented such contractors as Jacobs Engineering, Perini Construction Company, Sverdrup Corporation, Granite Construction, Lyons Construction, Robbins General Contractors, Inc., and Performance Contracting, Inc.  He has litigated delay damage claims involving hydroelectric dams (Perini-Yuba Dam, Wolfsen Hydroelectric Dam, Mandota Canal Dam, and Black Butte Dam), the electronic security system failure at the Oakland Airport, remediation through dredging of DDT-contaminated soils from the United Heckathorn Superfund site at the Port of Richmond, and many other projects.

He has represented such architectural firms as Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK), Sverdrup Corporation and others in connection with alleged errors and omissions in the design of the San Francisco International Airport Expansion Project (Boarding Area G), Santa Rita Detention Facility, the Sacramento Jail, the Los Angeles New Main Jail Expansion Project, the Cherry Hill Condominium Complex, the Santa Clara Courts Center, and many other facilities.

Mr. Otis received his Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Johns College, Annapolis, Maryland, and his Juris Doctorate degree from Hastings College of Law.  He is a member of the Invited Attorneys Conference of construction defense lawyers, the American Bar Association and the Bar Association of San Francisco (Recipient, Award of Merit; Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, Member, Board of Directors, 1979-1980; Barristers Club of San Francisco; Member, Conference of Delegates). He is a member of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Otis & Iriki
220 Montgomery Street, Suite 1900
San Francisco, CA 94104