Fate brings back a lawyer

A newborn daughter’s life-threatening condition forces him to abandon a promising career in international law and go back to insurance defense work. Since then, he has become one of California’s most successful insurance litigation attorneys

March 2001

Atty. Conrado “Joe” Sayas Jr., a prominent Filipino-American trial lawyer based in Los Angeles, was set to launch a prestigious international law practice after his graduation from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where he took up a Master of Law degree in international law. He had been offered a promising job by a reputable law firm that would require him to be various parts of Asia every other week.

He has had a promising practice as an insurance defense attorney with a major law firm in Los Angeles before he decided to shift to international law practice. But fate would not have it.

Just before he could accept the job, his wife, Anna, gave birth to a daughter with a life-threatening defect. The infant underwent surgery two days after birth. With the help of prayers, his daughter recovered, and his wife named the infant Clare, after the convent of the Sisters of the Poor Clare in the Philippines, where Sayas had studied as a young boy, and whose nuns offered prayers for the recovery of his daughter.

Realizing that his family needed him every single day, Atty. Sayas gave up his plans for an international law practice, and decided instead to go back to insurance defense work.

The decision turned out for the better. Atty. Sayas has since become one of the most successful insurance litigation lawyer in Southern California, which the prestigious Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal recognized when he was featured recently on the cover of Verdicts & Settlement, a weekly supplement of the two publications.

Atty. Sayas was the first-ever Filipino-American to be featured on the cover of the prestigious law publication.

Atty. Sayas was chosen for the cover of the Verdicts & Settlements' special issue on construction defects because of his recent record-setting legal victory over the city of South Pasadena. His clients, Filipino-American homeowners Dr. Rolando and Lucia Vasquez, recovered the sum of $800,000 from the city and the insurance company.

Atty. Sayas, who has been known for his crusading legal battles against big insurance companies, was featured in two articles, both written by Verdicts & Settlements staff writer Ed Kimble.

One article discussed the sewage case that led to the settlement, which was described as "the largest settlement a California municipality has ever paid a homeowner for destruction caused by sewage."

The other article was a profile of Sayas and his various successes in court litigation, both in the Philippines and in the United States.

The sewage case arose from a city sewer main backup on May 1, 1999 that sent raw sewage gushing out of three ground floor bathrooms in the six-bedroom “dream house” of Dr. Vasquez, a veterinarian; his wife Lucia, and his 85-year-old grandmother, Patricia.

Patricia was awakened that Saturday morning by the smell of untreated human feces that flooded the house's three bathrooms. The old woman, unable to contact her children, sat in fear on a kitchen stool for six hours, until her daughter-in-law arrived from work to discover the disaster. By then, the old woman was pale and trembling.

The Vasquez couple sought to recover repair and other costs from the city and the homeowners' insurer, but both refused to pay. They sought the help of Atty. Sayas, who has litigated insurance claims from both sides of the fence for more than 15 years.

The articles' author, Ed Kimble, cited Atty. Sayas' “relentless pursuits” and his conduct as a lawyer.

“In a field of lawyering overpopulated by braggarts, Sayas is known to friends and opponents alike as professional, polite and modest,” Kimble wrote. Atty. Sayas specializes in insurance bad faith, serious personal injuries, auto accidents, real estate, and business litigations.

Among Atty. Sayas' impressive legal victories cited by the publication were: a $4.6-million recovery in an auto accident; and two insurance bad faith cases that led to a $1.1 million and $650,000 recoveries.

His beginning as a trial lawyer is remarkable. Atty. Sayas wrote the brief and argued the Philippine Government's case against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. While an associate attorney at the Lauchengco and Mendoza Law Firm, he also worked on a case that resulted in the recovery of $700,000 for Filipino laborers.

Two of his opposing counsels in recent litigations -- Scott Haith of the Knopfler & Robinson law offices in Los Angeles, who represented the city of South Pasadena, and Leigh Harper of Mugg & Harper law office of San Bernardino, who represented the insurance company in an auto accident -- described Atty. Sayas as “very professional and very courteous.”

“I thought he (Sayas) was a very competent attorney, but what stands out was his courtesy and civility in an age when that appears to be lacking in many of our fellow professionals,” Harper told Verdicts & Settlements. He found Atty. Sayas to be a formidable, as well as a friendly foe.

Atty. Sayas graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines in 1982, and a Master of Laws from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 1990.

He practiced law for two years in the Philippines as an attorney for the prestigious ACCRA law office. He became a litigation attorney for the insurance defense firm of Nelsen, Tang, Pegue & Thornton, from 1986 to 1989.

After finishing his postgraduate course in Georgetown, Atty. Sayas returned to insurance defense work, joining Alexander, Milner & McGee, defending automotive products liability lawsuits for Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp., and banking disputes involving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

He established the Law Offices of Conrado Joe Sayas Jr. in 1991.