News

Devin McRae was recently named to the 2016 “40 Under 40” list published by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, California’s premier legal publication. Published on May 18, 2016, the annual list recognizes leading California attorneys under the age of 40 who have demonstrated exceptional legal ability in their practice areas.

The full Daily Journal article and interview with Devin can be found below.

As a cast member of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” Shannen Doherty might have mastered high school drama; but for drama in the courtroom, she’s turned to McRae.

McRae’s representing the actress in a lawsuit against her former business management firm, Tanner Mainstain Glynn & Johnson LLP, for allegedly failing to pay her medical insurance premiums. Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, requiring a mastectomy and chemotherapy that she contends could have been avoided through early detection had the firm not caused a lapse in insurance coverage. Shannen Doherty v. Tanner Mainstain Glynn & Johnson, LLP, BC591881 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 19, 2015)

The defendants have further complicated the lawsuit by taking untenable positions on routine matters concerning pleadings and discovery, McRae said, which have been repeatedly corrected by the court after McRae was forced to file, and win, motions that would ordinarily be resolved by stipulation or minimal compliance with the discovery rules.

“When defendants make delay and obstruction their primary strategy like this, it usually reflects an inability to defend on the merits,” McRae said.

He previously butted heads with Tanner Mainstain in 2014 while representing Randall C. James, co-founder of James Levy Management, in a lawsuit against his former partner Miles D. Levy and then-Tanner Mainstain partner Steven Blatt. Randall C. James et al. v. Miles D. Levy et al., BC543109 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Apr. 14 2014)

Levy told James their client, actor James Franco, no longer wanted to pay the company’s 15 percent commission, requesting 10 percent instead, according to the complaint. James acquiesced, but later found that Levy and Blatt, Franco’s former financial adviser, had conspired to divert the 5 percent difference to a shell corporation. The case settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

McRae is representing plaintiffs in a class action potentially involving more than 4,000 security guards allegedly recruited to go to Iraq under false promises of a fixed salary based on a 6-day-a-week, 12-hour-a-day schedule. The complaint states the defendants are private defense contractors who knew the putative class members would be forced to work much longer hours without additional compensation. Risinger v. SOC LLC et al., 12-CV63 (D. Nev., filed Jan. 13, 2012)

Though the plaintiffs aren’t McRae’s typical Hollywood clients, the alleged manner in which they’ve been wronged is ultimately similar, he said. McRae approaches each case with fluidity in mind, adjusting his style to fit the audience and his client’s objectives.

“Every case presents a problem to solve,” he said, “and you’ve got to figure out what the client hopes to achieve, and design and formulate a plan to and execute it in a cost-efficient manner.”

– Steven Crighton