James P. Molinelli is a partner at Burger, Meyer & D’Angelo, LLP, admitted in California and multiple Federal Courts. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). Mr. Molinelli values integrity, professionalism, and empathy for all involved in the court process. He takes time to build professional relationships with every attorney he works with. In addition to his trial successes, Mr. Molinelli has resolved hundreds of cases via mediation and thousands via mutual agreement.
Mr. Molinelli began his career with an insider’s view of the courtroom as a Research Attorney for the Hon. Ira A. Brown, Jr., then the San Francisco Law & Motion Presiding Judge and co-author of: “Civil Procedure Before Trial”. Mr. Molinelli next joined a defense firm and began handling product and injury cases. Motivated to try cases, Mr. Molinelli joined a more active trial firm, York & Associates, trying injury and death cases as ‘first’ and ‘second chair’, sometimes entering cases right before trial.
Mr. Molinelli’s career practice has centered on defense-side litigation for individual and commercial clients. In 2004, Mr. Molinelli was hired as a Managing Attorney for a Fortune 500 Company. He grew the office while also personally defending excess and aggravated risk cases. After a 2009 corporate acquisition, Mr. Molinelli accepted a Senior Trial Attorney role with a Fortune 250 Company and continued his trial practice. In 2015 Mr. Molinelli returned to a dual Managing Attorney role for a Fortune 100 company, actively defending cases while steering the office to grow and evolve to a lean ‘paperless’ ‘remote’ model. Faced with a choice of giving up cases or becoming a full-time Manager, Mr. Molinelli returned to private practice to exclusively focus on serious injury and wrongful death litigation.
He has ‘First Chaired’ approximately 20 jury trials to verdict. A 2015 case was a Jury Verdicts Weekly “Verdict of the Month”: a $26.5M auto-pedestrian TBI verdict with dangerous condition and driver negligence claims. Mr. Molinelli’s client was found 100% fault-free amidst conflicting testimony. There, Mr. Molinelli parachuted in two weeks before trial after defensing a truck v. bicycle injury case. The overwhelming majority of his trials have resulted in ‘no liability’ verdicts or verdicts well below the pre-trial ‘ask’. In 2023, Mr. Molinelli tried an admitted fault spine surgery case to a mid-six figure verdict – below the 7-figure pre-trial demand and multi-million dollar ‘ask’ at trial. In 2025, he steered a liability TBI case to settlement during trial, below both the pre-trial ‘ask’ and eventual verdict.
In his free time Mr. Molinelli enjoys the outdoors and time with his wife, Janice, their four children and grandson. Mr. Molinelli’s hobbies include cycling, swimming, modern history and enjoying his favorite Bay Area sports teams.