Daly City, CA

Philip A. Segal

Mr. Segal has litigated cases for more than 30 years in California, Texas, and Florida. Mr. Segal has an AV rating in Martindale-Hubbell. He has been specially appointed as a mediator, arbitrator, and settlement conference panelist in various Bay Area County Superior Courts. He does private mediations and binding arbitrations. In 2008, Mr. Segal became an Associate Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. His current rank is Advocate. He is a past President of Northern California Fraud Investigators Association 2002/2003 (ncfia.org), and is active in providing fraud training seminars for the insurance industry and related organizations. Mr. Segal has completed over 100 jury trials, and hundreds of mediations and arbitrations. He has settled hundreds of dog bite cases in California, Florida and Texas.

Thomas J. Murray

After being released by the Seattle Seahawks in 1985, Mr. Murray decided to become a trial lawyer, finished his undergraduate work at Catholic University in Washington D.C. and attended law school at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Mr. Murray was a merit scholar, on the dean’s list, participated in the mock trial program, and was the first Golden Gate student to extern at the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Francisco. Mr. Murray then clerked for the Honorable Ira A. Brown in the law and motion department of the San Francisco Superior Court where he learned the art of successful law and motion practice, inclusive of drafting successful summary judgment motions. After graduating from Golden Gate in 1991, Mr. Murray practiced at the firm of Lynch, Gilardi & Grummer in San Francisco, CA. He practiced in the areas of medical malpractice, wrongful death, business, construction defect, intellectual property, insurance, professional liability, and employment litigation, working these cases up for trial and then sitting second chair at the trial thereof. After three and one half years, Mr. Murray became anxious to obtain first chair trial experience so he joined the staff counsel office of USAA Insurance Company in 1994. In this position Mr. Murray tried in excess of twenty personal injury jury trials to verdict in venues throughout the Bay Area. Mr. Murray has tried numerous excess exposure and major injury cases and resolved hundreds of other cases through the ADR process. He has handled cases in the areas of class action defense, business, contract, personal/catastrophic injury, construction, product liability, professional liability, premises liability , trade secret, advertising, Uninsured Motorist and punitive damage claims. Mr. Murray has attended hundreds of arbitrations and mediations. He has taken and defended hundreds of depositions. After eleven years with USAA, Mr Murray joined McDowell Shaw & Colman in August 2006 where he handled personal/catastrophic injury actions, commercial/business litigation, product liability, professional liability, construction, and general liability cases from inception through resolution. Mr. Murray represents individuals, corporations and municipalities. He also serves as a mediator upon request. TJ Murray is now a partner at Kern Segal & Murray.

Lawrence E. Kern

Mr. Kern is the founder of Kern, Segal & Murray. He has practiced law for more than four decades, and he, as well as the firm, has an AV rating in Martindale-Hubbell. He has been named to Northern California Super Lawyers, Top Lawyers in San Francisco 2018, has been a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) since 1981, and he is listed in Best Lawyers in America. He is past president of the San Francisco Defense Counsel Association, past president of the University of San Francisco Inns of Court (USF), and specializes in general civil litigation primarily for defense interests. Mr. Kern was admitted to the California Bar in 1970, matriculated through Golden Gate University, and received his Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1969, and graduated the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a Bachelor of Science in 1965.

Michael G. Thomas

Michael Thomas is a senior associate with Kern, Segal & Murray, where he manages the firm’s appellate and complex motion practice. Mr. Thomas handles tort matters of a complex nature with a focus on defending individuals, businesses, property owners, contractors and landlords in lawsuits alleging premises liability, professional negligence, products liability, landlord/tenant habitability, class actions and other high exposure personal injury claims. Mr. Thomas has prosecuted cases involving claims for assault, elder abuse, fraud, wrongful termination, breach of contract and quantum meruit. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of San Francisco School of Law following his undergraduate studies at University of California Santa Barbara, where he received his Bachelor of Arts. Mr. Thomas has been an attorney with Kern, Segal & Murray since 1995 and he is admitted to practice in all California state courts and in California federal courts.

Geoffrey L. Meisner

Prior to joining Kern Segal & Murray, Mr. Meisner worked in music licensing and music supervision for film and television. After his admission to the California bar, he practiced business law, guiding both traditional “brick and mortar” businesses and online/mobile app developers through the business formation process. Eager to gain litigation experience, Mr. Meisner joined Kern Segal & Murray in 2016 where he now represents clients in personal injury/insurance defense and complex construction defect cases. Mr. Meisner is from Detroit, Michigan. He earned his Juris Doctorate from Golden Gate University, School of Law in 2013, and his Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts from San Francisco State University in 2009. While attending law school, Mr. Meisner worked at the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department in the Prisoner Legal Services branch, received a CALI Award for academic excellence in Lawyering Skills, and was selected to Moot Court Board.

Mengting Xu

Mengting was born and grew up in China. She earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2022. Prior to that, she received her Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree in China and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree at the University of Hong Kong. During law school, Mengting developed a passion for public interest work through her pro bono involvement in the Berkeley Law Afghanistan Project, where she worked to help Afghan nationals with their Humanitarian Parole applications during the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. She earned Pro Bono Honors from Berkeley Law. After graduation, Mengting worked as a Legal Service Funders Network (LSFN) public interest fellow at the LGBT Asylum Project, where she provided legal representation for LGBT asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. Prior to joining the firm, Mengting had six years of legal and regulatory experience in Hong Kong (2015 to 2021). In her spare time, she likes watching movies, playing badminton and hiking. She is fluent in Mandarin and English.

Corey Higgins

Corey Higgins is an attorney with over 15 years of experience, having collected over $150,000,000 in personal injury and car accident claims. He is known for aggressively fighting insurance companies to secure high settlements for seriously injured clients, leading them through legal and financial complexities. His firm is recognized as California's premiere Car Accident Injury Law Firm.