PROFILE

GEOFFREY R. HUDSON

ATTORNEY AT LAW

EDUCATION AND EARLY CAREER

Geoffrey R. Hudson was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Hudson’s family moved to California in 1965, and he received both his Bachelor of Arts degree (1968) and his Juris Doctor degree (1971) from the University of California at Los Angeles (U C L A).

After working for two years as a research attorney for the Los Angeles Superior Court, Hudson became an associate with Acret & Perrochet, a statewide law firm with offices in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, and both "land" and "sea" clientele. Hudson originally handled admiralty personal injury cases, but soon moved into the area of construction litigation. James Acret has since become a well-known icon and author in the construction field and many former Acret and Perrochet associates are prominent construction lawyers.

Hudson formed a private practice in San Francisco in 1978 and specialized in defense of lawsuits against sureties on contractor’s bonds. Representative early clients included Surety Company of the Pacific, Fremont Indemnity Company, Mohawk, Leatherby, the Insco-DICO Group and AmWest Surety Insurance Company.

The bond statutes contained in the Business and Professions Code were amended several times in the early eighties. Hudson helped to draft the legislation.

Geoffrey R. Hudson also represented Surety Company of the Pacific in a series of appeals that ultimately settled controversial issues concerning the nature and scope of the contractor’s license bond statutes. All Bay Mill & Lumber v. Surety Company is the landmark decision and is still extensively quoted and annotated with approval.

In 1981, Hudson participated in the formation of Contractor’s Surety Company (CSC) and administered all of its claims and lawsuits for ten years.

CONSTRUCTION LITIGATION

After the sale of CSC to Frontier, Hudson’s practice became devoted to construction litigation, and he became the lead counsel for Walsh Pacific Construction (of the Illinois Walsh Group). Hudson represented Walsh in a broad array of matters, including bid and contract matters, owner disputes (particularly in the public sector) subcontractor controversies, liens and stop notices, delay and impact claims and analysis. The litigation included such diverse subject matter as residences, schools and wastewater treatment plants. As a result, Hudson is well known in the construction community and has extensive arbitration and mediation experience involving many of the leading names in the ADR field--including Piazza, Ney, Long, Wolfe, Stan Smith, Pagano and Nagle.

SURETY DEFENSE

In recent years, Geoffrey Hudson has lectured and counseled clients on the subject of surety claims handling and compliance with Department of Insurance Regulations. Claims forms, letters and procedures created by Hudson are widely used in the surety industry.

From 1999 to 2003, Hudson served as claims administrator and as attorney for the Star Insurance Company, Redland Insurance Company and the Gulf Insurance Company. Since 2007 he has represented SureTec Insurance Company and American Contractors Indemnity Company in civil litigation throughout the Bay Area.

PERSONAL INTERESTS

Geoffrey R. Hudson resides in Napa, California (forty miles north of San Francisco), skis, and plays golf and tennis. The Hudsons are members of the Silverado Country Club. Hudson is married and has one daughter Jenna, age 31, who works in public relations for Jackson Family Wines in Santa Rosa.

MEDIA

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