Featured in the Daily Journal: Building a “Joint Legacy” of Trial Excellence

We are incredibly proud to be featured in the Daily Journal, a premier publication for California legal professionals. The September 2021 article, titled “Joint Legacy,” highlights the deep-rooted history, unyielding integrity, and relentless grit that define our practice at Mirador Law.

Our foundation in the courtroom has shaped our aggressive, trial-ready approach to complex personal injury litigation. Our commitment to our clients remains unwavering: we leave no stone unturned. The feature beautifully captures the transition of our firm’s legacy from our esteemed founders, Jules F. Bonjour and Michael P. Thorman, to partners Megan Burns and Emily Dahm.

Joint Legacy

By Kamila Knaudt, Daily Journal Staff Writer

Published: Monday, September 13, 2021 | www.dailyjournal.com

Criminal defense work and personal injury litigation may seem like practices that are worlds apart, but for the attorneys at Bonjour, Thorman, Burns & Dahm PC, they are two sides of the same coin.

“If you have trial skills, which we developed as criminal defense lawyers, it is a transferable skill to personal injury,” founding partner Jules F. Bonjour said. “If you know how to prepare a case for trial and if you know how to try a case, you’re going to be successful.”

Founded in 1967, Bonjour, Thorman, Burns & Dahm divides its practice between criminal defense and plaintiffs’ personal injury work that ranges from slip and fall litigation to vehicle accident and abuse cases.

Some of the firm’s notable cases include the defense of Michael Magidson, one of three men accused of killing a transgender teen in Alameda County. Magidson’s first trial ended in a jury deadlock after 10 days of deliberation, but the retrial in 2006 resulted in a sentence of 15 years for second-degree murder. People v. Michael Magidson, H33728C (Alameda Super. Ct., filed March 26, 2003).

In 2019, the firm achieved a successful jury verdict of over $900,000 for a client in a slip and fall lawsuit against Safeway Stores Inc. At trial, the jury rejected the supermarket’s argument that the plaintiff was partially responsible for the slip and fall, finding Safeway 100% at fault. The jury verdict included $665,511 in past and future pain and suffering damages. Jeanette Gaub v. Safeway Stores Inc., RG16825586 (Alameda Sup. Ct., filed July 29, 2016).

Based in Pleasanton, the firm currently comprises five lawyers, including managing partners. Emily L. Dahm and Megan T. Burns. Jules Bonjour and Michael Thorman helped lead the firm for 35+ years before their retirements.

The partners say reputation has been everything for the firm since its founding.

“When you start off, you don’t have a reputation and you have to build it brick by brick,” Bonjour said. “It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and a day to destroy it.”

Attorneys who have worked with the firm as co-counsel or against it as opposing counsel said the firm is highly regarded in Alameda County.

“I’ve known Jules and Michael since I started practicing law,” former Alameda County prosecutor turned criminal defense lawyer Christopher A. Lamiero said. “If I had to say one thing that defines them and has always defined their firm, it’s integrity.”

Lamiero, who is based in Dublin, described the firm’s attorneys as aggressive litigators, but honest and straightforward.

“It’s a business where sometimes practitioners can be a bit slippery,” he explained. “But both Jules and Michael and everyone that I’ve ever dealt with that they’ve brought in have all been ethically sound, solid people just beyond reproach.”

Lamiero added that when he was a prosecutor, he always told his colleagues in the office that if someone from Bonjour, Thorman, Burns & Dahm approached them and made a representation about their client or the case that they should, “sit up, take notice and take them seriously and look closely at the issues that they raised.” The firm has a reputation of never making misrepresentations about their clients or a case, he said.

The firm’s attorneys also distinguish themselves through their professionalism and their collegiality with opposing counsel and co-counsel, according to Lamiero and attorney Dorian A. Peters, who has worked with Dahm and Burns on past criminal cases.

“It’s really fun to work with lawyers who are good at what they do and are fun to work with and are personable,” Dorian Peters added. “I absolutely would want to work with them again.”

For Craig M. Peters, a former colleague of Dahm and Burns when they were public defenders in San Francisco, what makes the firm stand out, particularly Dahm and Burns, is the work they put into every case.

“They’re not afraid of getting their hands dirty,” said Craig Peters, a personal injury attorney and partner at Altair Law in San Francisco. They have “that kind of grittiness of being a public defender, where you really have to put a lot of elbow grease into your cases. That’s kind of the hallmark of them as people,” he said, adding both Dahm and Burns employ that same grit regardless whenever they are working personal injury matter.

“They treat their clients like family,” Peters said. “They turn over every stone. They run down every lead, and at the end of the day, when you’ve got somebody’s life on the line, their freedom on the line, that’s what you need in a criminal defense lawyer.”

Lamiero also refers work to the firm when clients approach him with personal injury cases or federal criminal cases, explaining his experience tells him that any client he refers to Bonjour will be well served. “I consider my reputation a part of the calculation so, if somebody calls me… I want to refer them to the best possible choice,” he added.

“It’s the culmination of a lifetime of work,” Bonjour said. “Megan and Emily have done everything that Michael and I could ever ask to continue that reputation.”

Both Dahm and Burns are mindful of the big shoes they have to fill and the long road ahead of them in maintaining the firm’s standards and excellence cultivated by Thorman and Bonjour.

“We don’t take it lightly,” Dahm said. “We just have so much respect for them and their willingness to put their life’s work in our hands and trust us to carry on the baton. It is truly an honor.”

Burns agreed: “It is still not a small thing to be a female trial lawyer in California and I think it says so much about Jules and Michael that they’ve entrusted this legacy that they built over 50 years to two women trial lawyers.”

“It says a lot about Jules and Michael as people, in addition to their qualities as lawyers, that they can see behind our gender and recognize our skills and that we were the right kind of heir apparents for them to continue on this legacy that they’ve worked so hard to build,” Burns said.