Lance B. Wickman retired from the partnership in December 1995. Lance joined the firm in 1972 and was one of the founding partners of the San Diego office. His practice concentrated on business litigation, particularly in real estate, construction and general commercial litigation. He had substantial experience in insurance, real estate, antitrust, product liability, unfair competition, trade secrets, business torts and partnership dissolution matters.
Lance has considerable experience in Proposition 65 environmental litigation and represented most of the large grocery store chains in California in a major "Prop 65" lawsuit, including Safeway, Vons, Ralphs, Albertsons, Alpha Beta and Big Bear. Some of his representative real estate clients included Mobil Land Development, John Burnham & Co., Douglas Allred Company and Baldwin Homes. He won a summary judgment and an award of US$250,000 in attorney's fees on behalf of Baldwin in a homeowners action involving the so-called "Mello Roos" real estate tax. He also represented the San Diego Padres in connection with season ticket holder litigation.
Lance was an experienced business trial lawyer and has tried antitrust, products liability, real estate and commercial cases to courts and juries in both federal and state court. He has argued appeals before the California Supreme Court, various divisions of the California Court of Appeal and the Ninth US Court of Appeals and has briefed cases before the United States Supreme Court. He also served as a court-appointed arbitrator and as an American Arbitration Association arbitrator. He served as a Judge Pro Tem of the San Diego Superior and Municipal Courts and also participated as a panel member on several California Continuing Education of the Bar panels on the subjects of California real estate remedies and the enforcement of money judgements.
Prior to entering law school, he served as Captain in the US Army from 1964 to 1969 and was decorated with the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.