Tyler Atkinson

Tyler represents plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes disputes. His clients range from individuals to Fortune 500 companies. He also frequently represents defendants and victims in criminal cases.

Tyler is a civil litigation partner who represents companies, executives, and individuals in high-stakes disputes throughout the Bay Area. In the past three years, he has tried 9 cases to verdict or resolution and won all of them. For Tyler, the through-line is preparation: mastering the record, identifying the facts that matter, building a theme that fits the evidence, and presenting complex disputes in a way judges, juries, and arbitrators can understand. Tyler wrote about his approach in Lessons From 7 Trials In Two Years.

Tyler’s primary practice is civil litigation. He serves as lead trial counsel in commercial disputes, real estate partnership and ownership conflicts, fraud and concealment claims, employment matters, civil rights cases, elder financial abuse, business tort and contract disputes, and anti-SLAPP defense. He also handles select criminal and investigation-related matters where business, executive, or reputational risk is in play. Tyler’s civil and criminal caseload is deliberate: his combined civil and criminal practices have helped him gain considerable court and trial experience throughout the Bay Area. His representation of criminal defendants facing potential civil claims, and civil clients with potential criminal exposure, has given Tyler valuable perspective on the interplay of civil law and criminal justice.

In 2026, Tyler obtained a multi-million-dollar jury verdict in a real estate partnership dispute in Santa Clara County Superior Court. His client had invested with longtime friends — one of them a licensed real-estate agent — only to be cut out when the project appreciated beyond expectations.

Tyler also secured an arbitration win in 2026, capping off a series of lawsuits between feuding neighbors.

In late 2025, after substituting into a fraud and forgery matter less than two months before trial, Tyler led the defense of a healthcare company and its executives against a former vice president alleging concealment, misrepresentation, and false promises tied to his employment. The jury returned a defense verdict on all counts after a five-week trial.

The earlier trials in Tyler’s streak ranged across equally varied subject matters.

• Tyler defended a pastor facing charges from nine accusers and exposure to more than 250 years’ imprisonment, i.e., multiple life sentences. After a seven-week trial featuring extensive character evidence, the jury split evenly and the matter resolved on a “time served” disposition.
• In a contract case, the jury returned a verdict for Tyler’s client in the exact amount requested, after less than an hour of deliberation.
• In an elder financial abuse trial, the court entered judgment returning the home of two elderly clients who had been induced to convey title to a relative during phone calls totaling two minutes and ten seconds.
• In a civil harassment bench trial, the petitioner dismissed his case mid-trial in exchange for a covenant not to face a malicious prosecution suit from Tyler’s client.
• And in 2023, Tyler secured a seven-figure arbitration award against multiple foreign- based defendants after compelling them to arbitrate pursuant to a federal court order.