Dawn L. Hassell
Managing Attorney
Dawn is a highly skilled litigator and top San Francisco personal injury attorney. She has an undefeated record in trial and arbitration for her clients and a special talent for obtaining exceptional results for the injured. She works closely with some of the foremost experts in the nation to build clear and compelling personal injury cases on behalf of her clients.
Dawn has obtained substantial judgments and settlements for her clients. Some of these include:
$4.9 Million for a farm worker in his 50s who was seriously injured in a car accident
$4.6 Million for a physician who sustained an impalement injury in a trip and fall accident
$4.67 Million court judgment for a seriously injured motorcyclist hit by a wrong way driver
$4.5 Million for a woman in her 60s who sustained a surgical brain injury after being struck by a vehicle while crossing in the crosswalk
$2.525 Million for two pedestrians struck by a loose trailer pulled by an agricultural vehicle
$1.75 Million for a middle-aged man rear-ended by a commercial truck sustaining spinal injuries that required back surgery
$1.5 Million for a rideshare driver who required collarbone surgery after a head on collision caused by a reckless driver going twice the posted speed limit
$825,000 for a middle aged administrator who sustained a surgical ankle injury in a slip and fall on a dangerous sidewalk
Awards and Honors include:
Dawn has been selected as a Super Lawyer for 10 years in a row. Super Lawyer is a rating bestowed on the top 5% of outstanding lawyers in their practice area.
National Trial Lawyers Top 100: An invitation-only organization composed of premier trial lawyers from each state. Membership is held by some of the best and finest trial lawyers in America.
Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum: The Top Trial Lawyers in America, is one of the most highly prestigious groups of trial lawyers in the country. Membership is limited exclusively to lawyers with court judgments and case results exceeding $2 Million. This esteemed distinction is held by less than 1% of attorneys in the entire United States.
Dawn’s case results have ranked among the highest in California by national lawsuit results ranking company Top Verdict:
- Top 10 Premises Liability Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 10 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 20 Personal Injury Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 20 Personal Injury Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 20 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 20 Pedestrian Accident Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 50 Personal Injury Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 50 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 50 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 50 Wrongful Death Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 100 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2021)
Expertise.com has named Dawn as one of The Best Personal Injury Attorneys in San Francisco and also as one of The Best Car Accident Attorneys in San Francisco.
Attorney and Practice Magazine has named Dawn a Top 10 Personal Injury Attorney. Less than 1% of attorneys nationwide receive an invitation for membership.
Nation’s Top One Percent In 2023, Dawn was selected for inclusion to the 2023 list as a member of the Nation’s Top One Percent by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel. NADC is an organization dedicated to promoting the highest standards of legal excellence. Its mission is to objectively recognize the attorneys who elevate the standards of the Bar and provide a benchmark for other lawyers to emulate.
San Francisco Magazine has selected Dawn for 10 years in a row for inclusion in their annual published list of the Top Women Attorneys in Northern California (2014-2023).
Dawn served as a Distinguished Member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association from 2002-2012.
Dawn’s high-caliber legal skills, tenacity, and exceptional negotiation skills have won her extremely high praise and gratitude over the years from the firm’s many clients. She has a superb 10 rating on the legal website Avvo, and countless 5-star ratings on review sites Yelp and Google Reviews.
Dawn received her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and was admitted to practice law in California in 1998. She is in her 25th year of practicing law. Dawn received her undergraduate degree from Binghamton University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and in the top 1% of her class.
Dawn is committed to making our streets safer. She is a member of WalkSF (a pedestrian advocacy organization for safer streets for pedestrians), and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (an advocacy organization for the safety of bicyclists on our streets).
In her spare time, Dawn enjoys spending time with her family and adorable dog Emmett, a miniature poodle-terrier mix.
Lisa A. Villasenor
Senior Attorney
(Of Counsel)
Lisa is a highly skilled litigator, negotiator, and top trial lawyer, with a long and successful background litigating personal injury and wrongful death cases through trial.
With an undefeated record in trial and arbitration for her clients, Lisa has a 100% win rate in 12 trials to verdict – including a wrongful death case, a toxic-mold case on behalf of a homeowner, and many auto accident cases.
Lisa is a formidable adversary. Her recent case results include:
$4.9 Million for a seriously injured motorist
$4.5 Million for a woman in her 60s who sustained a surgical brain injury after being struck by a vehicle while crossing in the crosswalk
$1.75 Million for a migrant farmworker in her 60’s struck and killed by an agricultural vehicle
$1.5 Million for a 73-year-old retired man who sustained a surgical femur fracture and post-surgical complications after tripping and falling on a box left in the entryway of a market
$998,000 for a father and son injured by a negligent tow truck driver
Lisa joined The Hassell Law Group in 2014 as a Senior Attorney and has practiced law for the past 35 years.
In the last three years, three of Lisa’s case results were ranked among the highest in California by the national lawsuit results ranking site Top Verdict:
- Top 10 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 20 Personal Injury Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 20 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 20 Pedestrian Accident Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 50 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2020)
Lisa has worked extensively on both sides of personal injury cases, as plaintiff’s counsel and also as defense counsel. Before joining our firm, she practiced personal injury, asbestos, and pharmaceutical litigation at some of the top law firms in San Francisco. She was a defense attorney at a top San Francisco law firm, Manning, Marder, et al., and was a partner at Prestholt, Kleeger, Fidone & Villasenor.
Her extensive litigation experience includes personal injury, premises liability, wrongful death, government-entity liability, toxic torts, and insurance bad faith. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Lisa worked extensively on bad-faith litigation against 20th Century Insurance Company.
Lisa is a highly distinguished member of the Queen’s Bench Bar Association, which promotes equality for women.
Lisa is committed to making our streets safer. Lisa has zealously represented many bicyclists and pedestrians in her career.
Lisa received her Bachelor of Science degree (B.S.) from Cal State University, Long Beach, and her law degree (J.D.) from Loyola Law School. She was admitted to practice law in California in 1988. During her school years, she worked in her father’s insurance brokerage gaining significant insight into insurance issues and the insurance industry.
Lisa is a highly distinguished member of The San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association.
In her spare time, Lisa loves to golf. She is an avid golfer and a member of many local women’s golf organizations.
Judy Graziano
Senior Attorney
(Of Counsel)
Judy is a highly skilled litigator and trial attorney with a long and extensive background handling catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases. She has an undefeated record on all personal injury cases she has tried in court.
Judy joined The Hassell Law Group in 2008 as Senior Counsel. She has practiced law in California for the past 24 years and was admitted to the Bar in 1999.
Judy is involved in all aspects of litigating serious injury cases for The Hassell Law Group from inception to conclusion. She holds a near-perfect record of wins in law and motion practice on behalf of the firm’s clients.
Judy is a formidable opponent and advocate for her clients and has obtained many multi-million-dollar case results for clients over the course of her career. Her recent case results include:
$4.9 Million for a seriously injured motorist
$4.6 Million for a physician who sustained an impalement injury in a trip and fall accident
$1.75 Million for the family of a 71-year-old migrant farm worker hit and killed by a commercial vehicle
$1 Million insurance policy limit settlement for a client who tripped and fell at a commercial property and required three surgeries
$925,000 settlement for the daughter of a woman in her mid-80’s in a wrongful death case
In the last 3 years alone a number of Judy’s case results were ranked as among the highest in California by national lawsuit results ranking company Top Verdict. Judy’s results in these cases were ranked as:
- Top 10 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 20 Personal Injury Settlements in California (2022)
- Top 10 Premises Liability Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 20 Personal Injury Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 20 Pedestrian Accident Settlements in California (2020)
- Top 50 Wrongful Death Settlements in California (2020)
Over the course of her career, Judy has successfully represented plaintiffs with serious injuries in catastrophic accident cases at some of the most prominent personal injury law firms in the Bay Area with case values exceeding $1 million. Before joining The Hassell Law Group, she worked at top personal injury firms The Veen Firm and The Law Offices of Joseph Carcione, Jr.
Experienced in the dual representation of clients in civil and workers compensation cases, Judy also holds an undefeated record in the many cases she has tried before the Workers Compensation Appeals Board.
Judy is a distinguished member of The San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association.
Judy is a California native and a Phi Kappa Phi undergraduate from San Jose State University. The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline honor society and standards for election are extremely high. Judy graduated from law school in 1999.
J
Ian Goldenberg
Senior Attorney
(Of Counsel)
Ian has over 20 years of valuable experience as a licensed attorney. Ian presently represents clients in personal injury claims and litigation at our firm. He has over seven years of experience practicing in personal injury law.
Ian graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He obtained his law degree (Juris Doctor) from New York Law School. He was admitted to practice law in 2002 in another state and practiced law there until he moved to California where he was admitted to practice law in 2016.
Ian has also run his own law firm. As a result, Ian brings a wealth of knowledge to our team. Ian worked as co-counsel on some of our cases before joining our team as a Senior Attorney.
Ian has negotiated a number of sizable settlements for clients at his own firm and as co-counsel on our cases. He has worked with many clients who have sustained severe injuries requiring extensive treatment and often major surgery and he takes tremendous pride in helping these clients.
During law school, Ian worked at other personal injury firms like ours, gaining hands-on experience in accident cases. He developed a keen sense of the detail and organization involved in handling injury cases and uses it to maximize client outcomes. Ian has excellent client communication skills and his clients are closely involved in decisions about their cases. Ian enjoys speaking with clients and helping put them at ease. He is adept at explaining the insurance claims process and the legal aspects of their cases.
Ian speaks conversational Spanish.
In his spare time, Ian enjoys traveling and taking in the Bay Area’s many panoramic views.
Sam Lasser
Senior Attorney
(Of Counsel)
Sam has been practicing law for over 15 years. He was admitted to practice law in California in 2007.
Sam received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. He obtained his law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Sam has substantial trial experience. For over ten years, he practiced criminal law in the San Francisco Bay Area and has tried many cases to verdict. Sam’s extensive courtroom experience provides his clients with a battle-tested trial lawyer.
Sam is an experienced personal injury attorney with broad knowledge of the law. He has substantial experience working on the plaintiff and defense side in cases. He provides his clients with vigorous personal representation. Sam has handled all types of personal injury cases including motor vehicle accidents, bicycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, slip/trip and fall accidents, and other injury cases arising from accidents. Sam speaks conversational Spanish.
Sam is a proud member of these esteemed organizations:
- National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
- State Bar of California
- Bar Association of San Francisco
In addition to practicing in the State Courts in California, Sam is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Northern District and Eastern District of California.
Caroline Shen
Associate Attorney
Caroline is admitted to practice law in California. She has 8 years of experience in personal injury law. Caroline brings a wealth of knowledge to our team.
Caroline joined The Hassell Law Group four years ago in 2019. She handles personal injury claims and litigation at the firm. Caroline’s passion is helping those injured in accidents and she is a fierce advocate on their behalf. She has negotiated sizeable settlements and resolved a substantial number of cases favorably for our clients.
Caroline has proven herself to be an exceptional advocate for our clients. Her work on two cases resulted in settlements of $1M or more for our clients. These case results were ranked in the Top 20 Premises Liability Settlements in California by Top Verdict both in 2019 and in 2020. One was a trip and fall on a raised sidewalk panel with surgical injuries and resulted in a $1M insurance policy limit settlement for the client. The other was a trip and fall on a box left inside a supermarket entrance that resulted in a surgical femur fracture and a $1.5M settlement for the client.
In 2022, one of Caroline’s case results ranked among the highest in California by national lawsuit results ranking company Top Verdict:
- Top 100 Motor Vehicle Accident Settlements in California (2022)
Prior to law school, Caroline worked at a personal injury law firm for 4 years in a paralegal type capacity developing her skill set and gaining valuable knowledge in this area of law.
Caroline obtained her law degree (J.D.) from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley with a major in Legal Studies and a minor in Music Performance.
During law school, Caroline worked at many esteemed organizations further developing her legal skills, including The Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and Creative Industry Law. She was also selected and served as a Fellow for The Justice and Diversity Center of The Bar Association of San Francisco.
Caroline values doing volunteer work in the community. She has served as a volunteer at Berkeley East Bay Humane Society and Berkeley Animal Shelter. She’s also served as a volunteer violin instructor at The Music Connection for students from low-income households.
Caroline speaks conversational Chinese (Mandarin Shanghainese dialect).
In her spare time, Caroline enjoys playing violin and engaging in creative writing projects.