Our Lawyers

Career
James Armstrong has practiced trial and litigation work in the San Francisco Bay Area for 39 years and is highly experienced in catastrophic injury cases including vehicle collisions, premises liability, traffic engineering and police misconduct, and in non-personal injury cases such as construction, real estate, and business litigation.

His extensive trial experience consists primarily of first-chair Superior Court jury trials. In addition, he has argued in the appellate courts many times, including the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has performed meditation hundreds of times and has been selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer.

Mr. Armstrong’s experience includes a wide variety of cases, including…

– Bodily Injury Litigation of all types
– “Big-rig” truck collisions
– Construction-site accidents
– Fire damage cases
– Defense of construction defect cases
– Civil rights including racial discrimination and alleged reverse discrimination
– Constitutional law
– Medical negligence
– Legal malpractice
– Highway and street design causing personal injury
– Product liability
– Toxic Torts
– Construction contract disputes, including delay, acceleration, change orders, equitable adjustment, indemnity and attorney fees
– Real estate litigation
– Insurance subrogation
– Trade secrets

James Armstrong’s familiarity and expertise with all aspects of trial work is well-established, including initial interview and investigation legal analysis, written discovery, site inspections, defending and taking depositions including expert depositions, trial preparation, and trial.

Andrew Wolff is an attorney working on behalf of injured people and tenants suing their landlord due to the poor conditions of their rental units. He is a graduate of University of San Francisco School of Law, and UC-Santa Cruz undergraduate. His practice is focused on personal injury and landlord-tenant litigation. For three years, Mr. Wolff served as a City Commissioner on the Oakland Rent Stabilization Board as a tenant representative appointed by then Mayor Elihu Harris. He is currently a member of the Consumer Attorneys of California, East Bay Tenant Bar Association, Alameda County Bar Association, and former Board Member of Housing Rights, Inc. Andrew Wolff is also one of three founding members of the Just Cause Eviction Protection Initiative, a grass-roots movement that started as an adjunct committee of the Oakland Tenants’ Union culminating into the Just Cause Eviction Ordinance protecting thousands of tenants in the City of Oakland. Mr. Wolff spent 3 years of his life involved in community organizing, attending City council meetings, and building a coalition to get the Just Cause Initiative on the Ballot, and he worked tirelessly to get the Initiative passed into law. Recently, Mr. Wolff achieved editorial recognition in a published decision: Fernandez v. Singh, California Court of Appeal, Third District (Duarte, J.); October 5, 2017 (modified November 2, 2017); 2017 WL 5076415. Mr. Wolff has appeared in numerous newsworthy articles involving his work as a member of Just Cause Oakland Initiative, and more recently, in news stories of obscene landlord conduct related to the Menlo Hotel 2012, the Empyrean Hotel 2017, and in 2018, related to the conduct of a landlord developer who viciously ejected a life-long tenant, and achieved the largest known single unit wrongful eviction settlement in Alameda County history. The Law Offices of Andrew Wolff, PC has obtained multiple judgments and more than 1,500 settlements for clients throughout California. Mr. Wolff has also held landlord-tenant MCLE training for young lawyers, and was a guest lecture in a course at Golden Gate University regarding landlord-tenant litigation. In 2017, Mr. Wolff was awarded the prestigious Guardian of Justice Award by the Alameda County Bar Association.

Mr. Wolff has practiced law for twenty years, and has extensive experience in all phases of landlord-tenant and personal injury litigation. He is well known in the non-profit community, and regularly volunteers on behalf of low income people. Mr. Wolff cares deeply about the people he represents, and the underlying issues involved in personal injury and landlord-tenant litigation. He feels strongly about achieving success for his clients. Mr. Wolff provides personal attention and quality legal consultation to his clients. His practice that started out of a conference room in Jack London Square has grown into a successful 4-lawyer firm because his clients come back and refer family and friends to him, and he works extremely hard to obtain results for his clients.

Tony Ruch received a B.A. in Law and Society from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2001 and his J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School in 2005. Mr. Ruch began his legal career at an environmental litigation boutique firm and also worked at a large plaintiff’s law firm representing injured victims in toxic torts. Mr. Ruch was also previously a Deputy District Attorney for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Ruch has also worked as in-house counsel for the San Francisco and Oakland Housing Authorities. As a former Bay Area foster care child, Mr. Ruch remains committed to foster care and social justice issues and serves on the board of directors for the non profit John Burton Advocates for Youth. Mr. Ruch has taken 22 jury trials to verdict representing the interests of his clients. Outside of work, Mr. Ruch enjoys running with his dog, road biking and reading.

Wortham Briscoe is a consumer protection attorney at the Law Offices of Andrew Wolff, P.C. Mr. Briscoe is honored to serve and represent consumers on various issues, including issues of social and economic justice. He is also an arbitrator with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) dispute resolution program. Prior to joining the Law Offices of Andrew Wolff, he received his J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.