BDG Law Group

Focus and practice areas

Civil matters make up the bulk of the work, and the firm's California history reaches back to 1983. BDG Law Group names a broad set of practice areas on its site: bankruptcy, business litigation, business transactions, complex and class actions, construction law, eminent domain and inverse condemnation, employment law, environmental, land use and development, estate planning and probate, real estate litigation, and real estate transactions.

Two threads run through that list. One is real property in several forms: eminent domain and inverse condemnation, real estate litigation, and real estate transactions. The other is business work: company disputes, complex and class actions, and the contracts that sit under business transactions. Construction law and environmental, land use and development matters touch both sides.

The list also covers work for individuals outside of business, such as estate planning and probate and bankruptcy. Estate planning generally involves drafting wills and trusts and naming who will manage an estate, while probate is the court process that follows a death. Bankruptcy work runs through the federal courts and follows set chapters, each with its own rules for debts and assets. A firm that keeps these areas alongside its business and property practice can take a client's personal legal needs as well as a company's.

Eminent domain and property disputes

Of the areas listed, eminent domain is the one the firm puts first, and it shapes much of the property work around it. It is the power of a public body to take private property for public use, with payment owed to the owner. Inverse condemnation is the mirror claim, where an owner argues that a public action has taken or damaged property without the payment the law requires.

These cases often turn on valuation. They can involve appraisers, valuation testimony and, when the parties disagree, a trial over what the property was worth. Because the firm also handles real estate litigation and transactions, a client with a property question can find both the deal side and the dispute side under one roof.

Who the firm represents

The client list reaches past private parties. Alongside individuals and businesses, the firm names corporations, school districts, public agencies, counties, cities and municipalities among its clients. That public and private mix fits a practice that handles eminent domain, where a government body is often on one side, together with everyday business and property disputes.

Public agency work carries its own rhythm. Government clients often face open-meeting and public-records rules, budget approvals and elected boards, and a firm that represents school districts, cities and counties has to work within that structure. On the private side, complex and class action cases can group many claimants into a single suit, which moves through certification, discovery and, in some cases, trial. Holding both kinds of work means the same firm can represent a public body in one matter and a private client in another.

How the team is built

The site sorts its lawyers into three roles. Gregory M. Bergman, Brian J. Bergman and Michele M. Goldsmith are listed as partners. Kelly Cauvel, Tomas A. Ortiz and Andrew Wheaton hold of counsel positions. Several more, among them Leah S. Bergman, Robert D. Bergman, Andy K. Cho, Lisa DeLorme, Reginald P. Dulaney, Richard A. Fond and Sarah E. Hernandez, carry the title of attorney.

Michael B. Atkins is the attorney whose profile the site fills out in detail. He focuses his practice on representing employers, among them public entities and businesses, in employment and tort related litigation. He began as an associate at an AmLaw 100 firm in New York, where he handled business disputes in federal and state court and in arbitration. He later practiced employment law at a boutique employment and litigation firm before joining BDG Law Group. His degrees are a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2010 and a B.A. from Yale in 2005, and he holds bar admissions in New York from 2011 and California from 2019.

Offices, reach, and the Mackrell network

Six offices give the firm a presence across the state. The site lists locations in Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, Costa Mesa, Ontario, Oxnard and San Jose. Those put the firm in and around Los Angeles, in the Inland Empire at Ontario, on the Ventura County coast at Oxnard, and in Northern California at San Jose. The firm states that its attorneys are licensed to practice in California only, so the practice is centered on the state.

Membership in Mackrell International widens that reach. The site describes Mackrell International as a network of independent law firms, which gives a California practice a route to counsel elsewhere when a matter crosses state or national lines.

Courtroom work and community role

The firm describes trial work as part of what it does. Its attorneys handle jury and bench trials, arbitrations and appeals at both the state and federal level, which covers the main forums a civil dispute can reach. Trial capacity matters in areas like eminent domain and class actions, where a case can run to a verdict if the parties do not settle.

The firm also points to work outside the office. It states that its attorneys and staff take part in community and nonprofit efforts through board membership, volunteering and financial support. As a reviewer, I read that as a note about the firm's people set next to its casework.

In my opinion, the clearest signal from the firm's own pages is longevity paired with range. A practice that has worked in California since 1983 and now lists six offices and more than a dozen named lawyers has built a general civil practice with a property and public-entity tilt. The site places the firm's founding at 1983 and its main office in Los Angeles.