Nathaniel L. Dunn

Senior Counsel

San Francisco – Walnut Creek, CA
D 925.210.2283
nate.dunn@fmglaw.com

Education

  • Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, B.A., 2001
  • Wake Forest University School of Law, J.D., 2007
Overview

Nathaniel L. Dunn is a Senior Counsel in Freeman Mathis & Gary’s Walnut Creek office.  Mr. Dunn’s practice focuses on the defense of public and private entities in a variety of civil litigation matters including personal injury, motor vehicle accident, employment, civil rights, construction defect, commercial contract, landlord-tenant, misappropriation of trade secrets, and asbestos cases. He also has extensive experience assisting judgment creditors with post-judgment enforcement.

Throughout his career representing defendants in civil litigation matters, Mr. Dunn has obtained exceptional outcomes for his clients, either through successful dispositive motions or by leveraging evidence obtained through discovery into favorable settlements.  He is also an advocate for improving the mental health of attorneys, as well as making the legal profession more inclusive and representative of our diverse society.

Mr. Dunn is a graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (B.A.), where he competed on both the wrestling team and the debate team.  Between his undergraduate education and law school, Mr. Dunn served for two years in the United States Peace Corps in Ghana, West Africa, as a Water, Sanitation, and Health educator focused on HIV/AIDS prevention.  He then received his law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law (J.D.), and was a member of the Thurgood Marshall Trial Competition Team and the American Trial Lawyers Association Trial Team while in law school.

Mr. Dunn has served as a board member of the Charles Houston Bar Association, the Minority Bar Coalition, the Alameda County Bar Association Judicial Appointments Evaluation Committee, and also on the Executive Committee of the California Lawyers Association Litigation Section. In 2022 Mr. Dunn participated in a task force to revise the Bar Association of San Francisco’s attorney civility guidelines, leading to amendments regarding diversity and elimination of bias, remote proceedings, and attorney mentorship. 

A Bay Area native, Mr. Dunn lives in Richmond with his wife and their two sons.  In his free time, he enjoys trail running, walking his dog, cooking, and gardening.  

Bar Admissions

California

Representative Cases & Clients
  • Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a property owner whose dog startled a postal carrier and caused him to fall to the ground.
  • Defended a building owner in a case where one of its tenants in a residential apartment building assaulted another resident with a gun. The plaintiff alleged that the owner should have prevented the attack by evicting the perpetrator of the assault sooner. The case was settled for one-sixth of plaintiff’s original demand.
  • Successfully obtained a voluntary dismissal on behalf of an insured company when the plaintiff, a workers’ compensation carrier, sought to recover $35,000 paid out on a workplace injury policy following an industrial accident in which a worker fell from an unsupported ceiling crawl space. The plaintiff withdrew its complaint after a series of meet and confer letters setting forth why the claim was meritless.
  • Advised a large public university on its liability policies and operating procedures related to its private health club.
  • Obtained a favorable settlement and early dismissal of a landlord-tenant lawsuit in which 13 former tenants complained of habitability defects in each of their units in a building previously owned by our clients.
  • Negotiated a favorable early settlement in a personal injury action in which the plaintiff alleged a building owner’s failure to keep a worksite safe led to the plaintiff tripping and falling down a flight of stairs.
Affiliations
  • Charles Houston Bar Association
  • Minority Bar Coalition
  • Alameda County Bar Association
  • California Lawyers Association Litigation Section
Awards and Recognition
  • 2017 – National Black Lawyers, 40 Under 40
  • 2018, 2021, 2022 – Charles Houston Bar Association, President’s Award
  • 2022 – Minority Bar Coalition, Unity Award