Atty. Raphael Cung

Raphael Cung is a senior attorney with Callahan & Blaine with over 20 years of experience in complex business and corporate litigation, as well as the representation of plaintiffs with catastrophic personal injuries. As an Orange County business attorney and Santa Ana personal injury lawyer, Raphael has appeared in state and federal courts throughout California and in other states, as well as multiple arbitration proceedings.

Raphael is especially versed in difficult federal and state court procedures. Working with other Callahan & Blaine attorneys, Raphael has achieved among the following favorable results for the firm’s clients:

• In a trade secrets case alleging over $6 million in damages against a computer manufacturer client, obtained a settlement for just $5,000 after filing a motion for summary judgment.
• After almost two years of litigation, obtained a $15 million personal injury settlement for a client who was paralyzed in a biking accident due to a road condition defect, after the client had hired a first law firm who advised him to settle for only $250,000.
• Second-chaired at trial the defense of real estate lenders charged with breaches of federal and state lending law. Obtained favorable verdicts resulting in the plaintiff borrower having to pay back over $2 million in loan principal and interest owing.
• In an action by a national insurance company against a radiologist physician alleging wrongful billing, following extensive discovery proceedings, obtained a settlement for the client’s payment of only $45,000 when plaintiff originally demanded over $1 million.
• In a legal malpractice case for a client deprived of his settlement funds by his previous attorneys, obtained a $1.5 million settlement payment from a law firm partner based on only vicarious liability and alter ego theories.
• Defeated a motion for class certification in a case in Bankruptcy Court involving the complicated intersection of substantive bankruptcy law, federal employment law, and class action procedures; as result, the client Bankruptcy Trustee paid $10,000 to settle a claim for over $1.5 million.
• In a case involving a client homeowners’ association (HOA) sued by a homeowner for water damage, the firm was retained following the HOA’s loss at trial using appointed insurance defense counsel. Even though the client had been assessed compensatory and punitive damages at trial and deemed the losing party for cost purposes, Raphael defeated plaintiff’s motion for attorney’s fees while also winning the HOA’s own motion for attorneys’ fees, resulting in a swing of $650,000. The client ultimately paid a net of zero.
• Served as a senior member of the team in a bench trial for a financial institution client in an insurance coverage dispute arising out of a directors and officers policy; obtained $5 million in recovery against a national insurance company, after the court accepted all of the client’s arguments for coverage despite 3 years of resistance by defendant.

Among Raphael’s previous accomplishments are the following: successfully representing a major film studio suing over a “knock-off” TV show, which made new case law interpreting the federal Lanham Act; obtaining a walk-away settlement after filing a summary judgment motion in a dispute involving a $17 million real property; defending corporate directors and officers sued for breach of fiduciary duties in connection with a “going private” tender offer, which allowed the $600 million transaction to go forward; winning a motion for a new trial for a client casino resort suing over defective gaming equipment after the court initially granted a directed verdict; winning summary judgment for a real estate brokerage sued for the acts of an employee who had a side business, a result upheld by the California Court of Appeal; and obtaining complete vindication for a corporate president sued for $300 million involving the estate of a prominent billionaire, whose network of companies the client oversaw for 25 years, a case that was written about in Vanity Fair.

Raphael previously practiced with O’Melveny & Myers and Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles. He has been selected as a “Rising Star” by California Superlawyers.

Before attending the University of Virginia School of Law, Raphael served for 4 years in the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., where he formulated trade policy toward East Asia.

Raphael was born in Saigon, South Vietnam and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. His family fled the country on the last day before Saigon was overtaken by Communist forces. Raphael is a native speaker of Vietnamese.