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Michael A. Scafiddi

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Biography

Michael A. Scafiddi has been an attorney licensed to practice in the State of California for twenty-four years (1997). Mr. Scafiddi began his career working as an associate for the Law Offices of William D. Shapiro, who worked exclusively representing plaintiffs with catastrophic injuries and wrongful death matters.

Mr. Scafiddi opened his own office in 2003 in San Bernardino, California, where he handled both personal injury law and criminal defense cases. Since 2003, the Law Offices of Michael A. Scafiddi has grown and now has seven full time associate lawyers, three of counsel lawyers, and nine staff members, including a calendar clerk, law clerks, case managers, a receptionist, a personal injury civil secretary, and paralegals.

Approximately 95% of the cases handled by the Law Offices of Michael A. Scafiddi are criminal defense cases, and 25% of the criminal defense cases are felony and misdemeanor DUIs, vehicle manslaughter DUIs, and Watson murder cases. The remaining 5% of cases are plaintiff catastrophic injuries and wrongful death cases. In the past 24 years, the Law Offices of Michael A. Scafiddi has recovered over Fifty-Seven Million Dollars for his clients through verdicts and settlements.

During this same time period, Mr. Scafiddi has handled well over 1,000 DMV/APS hearings.

Mr. Scafiddi is also greatly involved in the local legal community, having served on the San Bernardino County Bar Association Board of Directors for ten years, and also serving as the President of the San Bernardino County Bar Association from 2008 to 2009. Mr. Scafiddi has also served for the past five years as a member of the Western San Bernardino County Bar Association Board of Directors and is the 2020/2021/2022 President.

Mr. Scafiddi has also served on the Board of Directors for the Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino for over twenty-four years, serving as President for four years, and Vice President for twelve years. He is currently a board member and is the first lawyer to receive the title of President/Emeritus.

Mr. Scafiddi has maintained a Martindale Hubbell Preeminent AV Rating since 2014. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Top Lawyer in 2020 and 2021, and recently for 2022. Mr. Scafiddi has also been awarded numerous awards, including:

• Jennifer Brooks Lawyer of the Year Award in 2015/2016 awarded by the Western San Bernardino County Bar Association

• Kearney Nydam Award for Pro Bono services in 2010

• Lawyer of the Year by the Inland Empire Latino Lawyers Association in 2015

• Legal Services Corporation Certificate of Appreciation Award for all not-for-profit legal aid with Inland Counties Legal Services¬ in 2015 (first lawyer in the county in fifteen years to receive this award).

• St. Thomas Moore Award- Red Mass Steering Committee for Riverside and San Bernardino Counties- 2012

• AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubbell since 2014

• The Seton Hope Award- 2015

• Lawyer of the Year by Western San Bernardino County Bar Association 2015

• John B. Surr Award 2021

Mr. Scafiddi has also served as a board member and chairperson for Cedar House in Bloomington, California, a 125-bed inpatient drug and alcohol treatment and rehabilitation facility - 2005 to 2016.

Prior to his career as an attorney, Mr. Scafiddi served for thirteen years as a sworn police officer honorably retiring as a Sergeant. As an officer Mr. Scafiddi was named Officer of the Year in 1989. As an officer Mr. Scafiddi testified over 400 times as a gang expert. Mr. Scafiddi formerly served on the state of California Prison Gang Task Force.

In 2018-2019 Mr. Scafiddi was appointed to the state of California Gang data base analytical data committee which made recommendations to the state attorney general in changing how individuals are placed into the gang database. This important work was used to make the system more fair and more difficult for individuals be placed in the gang database system.

Mr. Scafiddi currently travels to law offices and firms throughout many states lecturing and training lawyers on holistic lawyering, which is referred to at Mr. Scafiddi's own office as "compassionate lawyering."