Dick Semerdjian was named one of the San Diego daily Transcript's Top 10 attorneys for 2006.  The following is excerpted from the article:

Dick Semerdjian
Schwartz Semerdjian Haile Ballard & Cauley LLP
101 West Broadway, Suite 810
San Diego, California 92101
das@sshbclaw.com
(619) 236-8821

Education
Law School/Year: University of San Diego Law School/1985
College/Year: University of California, San Diego/1981

Bar Admissions

California; Southern District, United States District Court; Eastern District, United States District Court; Northern District, United States District Court; Central District, United States District Court; Supreme Court of the United States of America

Practice Areas
Business Litigation, Civil Litigation, Labor, Personal Injury & Property Damage, Product Liability

Major cases you have participated in

I have represented people who have suffered catastrophic injuries resulting from industrial, product and car/truck/motorcycle accidents. I also regularly defend publicly traded and privately held companies in business, commercial labor and employment litigation, real estate and product liability/personal injury cases. I enjoy the diverse practice of law, which spans a wide variety of clients and practice areas.

Professional background

I received a double major at the University of California, San Diego in cell biology and biochemistry. After college, I entered law school at the University of San Diego with the thought of also going to medical school in order to obtain a joint M.D./J.D. degree. While a law student, I clerked at a San Diego law firm that encouraged me to become a trial lawyer (so much for medical school). After passing the bar, I was mentored by the trial attorneys at Post Kirby Noonan & Sweat. In 1998, I left that firm with three of my partners (Ross Schwartz, Jeff Haile and Jim Ballard) and we started our own law firm. Today, Schwartz Semerdjian Haile Ballard & Cauley, LLP has 10 attorneys. The firm is associated with two great retired judges whom we admire and respect greatly -- Hon. James Milliken and Hon. Vincent DiFiglia. The firm specializes in civil trial and appellate practice areas, business and corporate transactional counseling and entity formation, real estate, intellectual property and probate, trusts and estate planning.

Professional affiliations

Director, officer and vice chairman of the San Diego International Sports Council and San Diego International Sports Foundation; vice chairman of the Business Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section; vice president of the San Diego County Bar Association board of directors; council/board of governors for the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section; board of directors of the Torrey Pines High School Foundation and Solana Beach Surf Baseball Club; past board of directors of the San Diego Trial Lawyers/Consumer Attorneys of San Diego (sustaining member); past board of managers for the YMCA Human Development Department; appointed member (appointed by the California State Bar board of governors) American Bar Association House of Delegates; editor of the Civil Law Discovery Law Column for Trial Bar News; sustaining member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America; member of California Consumer Attorneys; member of San Diego Defense Lawyers; member of the Defense Research Institute; member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers of San Diego; master of the William Enright Inn of Court; past president of the Barristers Club of San Diego; frequent lecturer CEB and San Diego Inn of Court; UCSD Chancellor Associates and Alumni Association ; San Diego County Bar Association Bench and Bar Committee, Building Committee, Client Assistance Committee.

Personal background

I am married to Peggy Semerdjian, who teaches in Rancho Santa Fe. I have three wonderful children, Alyssa (age 16 -- a student at Torrey Pines High School who runs cross country and track), Tyler (age 14 -- a student at Torrey Pines High School who plays football and la crosse) and Trevor (age 12 -- a student at Carmel Valley Middle School who plays competitive travel baseball with the Solana Beach Surf Baseball Club). Having grown up the youngest son of an Armenian priest, I was instilled with characteristics of honesty, integrity, respect and hard work -- attributes that are emphasized daily by the lawyers in my law firm.

via www.sddt.com

Top Attorneys 2006 is the culmination of a peer voting process that began in March with the announcement of a call for nominations. San Diego County lawyers were asked to nominate who among their peers -- with whom they had professional experience -- were worthy of recognition. Attorneys could not nominate themselves.

To accomplish this, approximately 6,300 e-mail invitations were sent to attorneys listed in the San Diego County Attorney Directory 2006. Subsequent reminder e-mails were sent ahead of the April 14 deadline.

From that initial e-mail we received a total of 600 nominations among the 12 pre-selected categories of Corporate/Business (Litigation and Transactional Law), Municipal/Government, Real Estate/Construction (Litigation and Transactional Law), Labor/Employment, Criminal, Intellectual Property (Litigation and Transactional Law), Family Law and Insurance Law.  Though very broad, the categories reflect the primary areas of practice in San Diego County.

When the deadline passed, the data was cleaned and nominations that did not meet the criteria set out for participation were removed from further consideration. Nominations made by non-lawyers and or with inadequate information were disqualified.

The remaining nominations were each assigned a value of one. Nominations that were made by an attorney practicing in the same firm as the nominee were given a negative value of .5 added to the original value of one.

Nominations between firms were assigned a value of positive .5 to be added to the original value. Once the preliminary values were finalized, multiple nominations were combined to determine a total score for the nominee.

The top 25 nominees were then selected in each category based on the total score. In certain categories, there were more than 25 attorneys due to ties.

These attorneys advanced to the semifinal round.
The semifinalists were notified that they had advanced to the next level and were asked to cast their votes for 10 nominees in their categories. When the voting was closed, The Transcript validated the votes cast.
The top 10 attorneys in each category were selected based on the number of peer votes they received. Some categories have more than 10 attorneys due to ties.

To see the complete section and results follow this link: www.sddt.com/topattorneys