Rancho Santa Fe Lawyers

John V. Bell received his law degree from St. John’s University School of Law in New York and has been admitted to practice in both New York and California. He is J&Y Law Firm's senior trial lawyer with over 33 years of trial experience.

Derek began working in the field of personal injury law in 2002 after graduating from UC Irvine. He has dedicated his entire professional career to serving injured people and their families.

Derek has handled thousands of cases from the preparation stage to negotiation and settlement. His experience includes auto accidents, wrongful deaths, dog bites, slip and falls, and many other types of personal injury cases. Derek has an adversarial but professional relationship with many of the adjusters from the major insurance companies. Derek is also fluent in Spanish and is comfortable helping his Spanish-speaking clients understand the legal process.

Outside of work,...

Whitney Betts has extensive experience representing survivors of sexual assault and will stand up to your perpetrator and all those who enabled and protected them to get you justice. Whitney has spent her entire career developing an outstanding reputation for effective, ethical, and compelling advocacy for her clients. She believes in the power of elevating the voices of those who have suffered misfortune at the hands of others from victims into survivors by fighting to get them justice.

Practicing real estate, business and commercial transactional law for the better part of 20 years, including a decade serving as an executive in charge of land acquisitions and development at two Fortune 500 public companies. Personally involved in the negotiation, contracting, purchase, financing, management and development of billions of dollars in properties throughout the united states. Utilized as in-house counsel for several small to medium-sized multi-million dollar companies taking on numerous and varied aspects of business enterprise issues. Forming new LLCs and revisiting existing LLC operating agreement to bring them into compliance with both new laws and the desires...

Mr. Pitcaithley has been an active member of the California State Bar for 39 years. He is licensed to practice before all State and Federal Courts, all Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court. During the mid-1980's, for period of four years, Mr. Pitcaithley worked as legal counsel to a major insurance brokerage and claims adjusting firm where he served as insurance defense counsel for several nationwide insurance companies. From this experience, as well as his prior experience in handling vehicle accident and premises liability cases, in 1989 the emphasis in Mr. Pitcaithley's law practice shifted to plaintiff's personal injury...

Julia Schneider received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kansas, with a double major in Spanish and Latin American Studies. After graduation, Ms. Schneider moved to Barranquilla, Columbia where she taught fifth grade science and language arts at a bilingual school. After teaching in Columbia, Ms. Schneider entered California Western School of Law as a Trustee’s Scholar. Ms. Schneider joined Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, LLP in January, 2014 as a certified legal intern through California Western School of Law’s clinical internship program. She later became a law clerk, and now is an associate attorney in the firm. She...