Craig M. Peters

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Craig M. Peters is a partner at Altair Law®. He handles complex and catastrophic cases involving severe injury or death. He has experience dealing with product defects, dangerous property conditions, vehicle and machine accidents, and professional negligence. He has a record of success in both settling and trying cases to verdict.

Craig is proud to fight for justice on behalf of his clients and is committed to helping them through a difficult time in their lives. The clients he helps have suffered from brain and spinal cord injuries, neck and back injuries, bone fractures and nerve damage, burn injuries and psychiatric injuries.  Craig has extensive trial experience representing families and individuals who are union members and laborers, service industry workers and white-collar professionals.

When other attorneys are unable to resolve their cases prior to trial, Craig is frequently asked to become trial counsel on their cases. He has regularly been invited to speak on the issue of trial skills by law schools, professional organizations and outside agencies. The international non-profit agency International Bridges to Justice, which seeks to end torture and build criminal justice systems around the globe, invited Craig to help train lawyers in India who are representing the indigent, during a four-day training in New Delhi.

Prior to starting Altair Law, Craig was a trial attorney representing victims of asbestos exposure throughout the State of California. He was a criminal defense attorney for 13 years and went to trial on a full range of cases from misdemeanors to felonies. During the last three years of his criminal defense work, Craig was the Director of Training for the Office of the Public Defender in San Francisco.

In addition to teaching trial skills at Hastings College of Law and University of San Francisco School of Law, Craig has been a professor of Constitutional Law and Evidence at San Francisco Law School. Craig is a member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers (IATL), American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), a five-time finalist for the SFTLA Trial Lawyer of the Year for the trial results he obtained for his clients in Staedler v. Galu (San Francisco), Doe v. Mazada (Alameda County), Will v. Caterpillar (Monterey County), Duncan v. Velasquez (Solano County) and Martinez v. Herndon Partners (Fresno County), and a finalist for the CAOC’s Consumer Attorney of the Year.

Craig grew up in Northern California and lives in San Francisco with his family. They enjoy traveling, attending Giants games, and exploring The City on their bicycles.

Honors & awards

Top 100: Northern California Super Lawyers, 2019
Top 30 Plaintiffs Lawers, Daily Journal, 2019
National Law Journal’s Plaintiff’s Trial Lawyers Trailblazers, 2019
Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News & World Report, 2019
Northern California Super Lawyers List, Super Lawyers, 2019
Rated AV-Preeminent for Highest Level of Professional Excellence, Martindale-Hubbell, 2019
Top 100 Trial Lawyers, The National Trial Lawyers, 2019
Avvo Superb Rating, (10.0/10.0), Avvo.com

Consumer Attorney of the Year, Consumer Attorneys of California, 2018
Top 100: 2018 Northern California Super Lawyers
Northern California Super Lawyers List, Super Lawyers, 2018
Best Lawyers in America, Lawyer of the Year 2018
Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News & World Report, 2018
Rated AV-Preeminent for Highest Level of Professional Excellence, Martindale-Hubbell, 2018
Top 100 Trial Lawyers, The National Trial Lawyers, 2018
Avvo Superb Rating, (10.0/10.0), Avvo.com

Finalist for Trial Lawyer of the Year, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, 2017
Finalist for Trial Lawyer of the Year, Marin County Trial Lawyers Association, 2017
Top 100: 2017 Northern California Super Lawyers
Northern California Super Lawyers List, Super Lawyers, 2017
Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News & World Report, 2017
Rated AV-Preeminent for Highest Level of Professional Excellence, Martindale-Hubbell, 2017
TopVerdict.com's Top 50 Settlements in California, 2017
Top 100 Trial Lawyers, The National Trial Lawyers, 2017
Avvo Superb Rating, (10.0/10.0), Avvo.com

Finalist for Trial Lawyer of the Year, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, 2016
Northern California Super Lawyers List, Super Lawyers, 2016
The Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News & World Report, 2016
Rated AV-Preeminent for Ethical Standards & Ability, Martindale-Hubbell, 2016
TopVerdict.com's Top 50 Settlements in California, 2016
Top 100 Trial Lawyers, The National Trial Lawyers, 2016
Avvo Superb Rating, (10.0/10.0), Avvo.com

Finalist for Consumer Attorney of the Year, Consumer Attorneys of California, 2015
Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News & World Report, 2015
Rated AV-Preeminent for Highest Level of Professional Excellence, Martindale-Hubbell, 2015
Northern California Super Lawyers List, Super Lawyers, 2015
Finalist for Trial Lawyer of the Year, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, 2014
Rated AV-Preeminent for Highest Level of Professional Excellence, Martindale-Hubbell, 2014
Northern California Super Lawyers List, Super Lawyers, 2014

Finalist for Trial Lawyer of the Year, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, 2013
Northern California Super Lawyers List, Super Lawyers, 2013

Professional Associations

– AAJ (American Association for Justice), National Board Member
– ABOTA (American Board of Trial Attorneys), National Board Member
  • SF ABOTA, Executive Committee member
– ACTL (American College of Trial Lawyers), Invited Fellow
– BASF (Bar Association of San Francisco), Active Member – Lawyer Referral & Information Service
– CAOC (Consumer Attorneys of California), 3rd Vice President - Education, Executive Board Member
  • Past 4th Vice President – Communications
  • Past Treasurer
  • Past Parliamentarian
  • Past Board of Governors members
– IATL (International Academy of Trial Lawyers), Invited Fellow
  • Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Co-Chair
– ISOB (International Society of Barristers), Invited Barrister
– SFTLA (San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association), member
  • Past Education Committee Co-Chair