Jan A. Kopczynski is a litigation partner with Berding & Weil LLP, and he specializes in handling complex construction-defect cases as well as business litigation and real-estate disputes. He also provides general counsel to the firm's commercial and community-association clients. Mr. Kopczynski has been with the firm since 1995 while working full-time as a law clerk after completing his first year of law school at Santa Clara University School of Law.

During his fifteen years at B&W, Mr. Kopczynski has negotiated millions of dollars in settlements for the firm's clients as a result of successful mediations, arbitrations, and court trials. He has also been involved in the litigation of several product-liability class-action cases, including Richison et al. v. Weyerhauser Company (San Joaquin Superior Court); Carr et al. v. Stimson Lumber Company (Alameda County Superior Court); Trinity Properties v. Central Sprinkler Company of California (Contra Costa Superior Court); and The Sutterfield Owners Association v. Tyco International (San Francisco Superior Court).

Mr. Kopczynski received his Juris Doctor degree in 1998 from Santa Clara University School of Law. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree, Magna Cum Laude, in political science from the University of California at San Diego in 1992. And in 1993 he received his Masters Degree, with honors, from the University of California at San Diego. In addition to studying law at Santa Clara University, he participated in the law school's Moot Court Competition and was selected as a member of the Trial Team, which competed in two elite trial competitions during his final year of law school.

Mr. Kopczynski is a member of the State Bar of California (1999), and he is also admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (1999) and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2005).

Mr. Kopczynski has published numerous articles regarding legal issues involving community associations, the construction process, class actions, energy deregulation, and association management. His most recent articles include What Does it Mean for a Board Member to be a Fiduciary (ECHO Journal, October 2008), and The Right to a Jury Trial in Disputes with Developers (ECHO Journal, January 2009). All of Mr. Kopczynski's articles can be found on the Berding & Weil website.