Derek Jacobson has handled maritime and personal injury cases since 1979. He specializes in representing seamen, commercial fishermen, waterborne construction workers, longshoremen, oil platform workers, and cruise ship passengers, among others, up and down the west coast and across the Pacific as far as Guam in state and federal courts. Derek has also developed an expertise in federal workers’ compensation cases arising under Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, and cases administered under the Longshore Act, including the Defense Base Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Raised in the Bay Area, Derek is a graduate of Lick Wilmerding High School in San Francisco and the University of California at Santa Cruz. He received his law degree in 1979 from Hastings College of the Law, where he served as Associate Editor of the Hastings Law Journal. Derek joined McGuinn, Hillsman & Palefsky in 1979. He holds an “AV” rating (highest rating) from Martindale-Hubbell.
Derek has published on admiralty topics and has appeared as a guest speaker on selected maritime and personal injury subjects at conferences of the American Bar Association, the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, the Industrial Claims Association, and the Southwest Labor Studies Association. He has acted as a pro-tem settlement conference judge for the San Francisco Superior Court and has served as a party arbitrator in Kaiser Permanente arbitration proceedings.
In addition to his work as a litigator, Derek holds a U.S. Coast Guard license as a master of steam, motor, or auxiliary sail vessels up to 50 tons in U.S. inland waters, sixth issue.