Geonetta & Frucht, LLP

Focus and practice areas

The firm handles civil litigation from a base in San Francisco and a second office in Oakland. It names employment law first among its areas, alongside civil rights, business litigation and personal injury. Intellectual property, real estate litigation, trust litigation and insurance bad faith also appear on its list of matters.

Civil litigation covers disputes between private parties that move through the courts. A firm that describes its work this way pursues claims for money, injunctions and other civil remedies. Geonetta & Frucht applies that focus to both individual and business clients. Workers bring employment, injury and civil rights matters, while companies bring contract and trade secret needs.

In my opinion, the useful read here is a firm with real breadth and a clear center. The employment and business pages carry the most description. The other areas, including personal injury, trust litigation and real estate litigation, show what the two attorneys will also weigh when a client calls.

The two attorneys behind the firm

The site names two lawyers: Frederick J. Geonetta and Kenneth Frucht. The firm carries both their names, which points to a two partner firm where the named lawyers handle the work themselves.

The site states that Geonetta and Frucht hold more than fifty years of combined experience in Bay Area civil cases. That figure counts the pair together across their years of practice. A client testimonial on the site refers to them as Fred and Ken and describes a civil litigation matter that ran for four years.

A four year case says something about the kind of matter the firm sees through. Long civil litigation moves through pleadings, discovery, motions and, in some cases, a trial. Discovery alone can stretch across depositions, document requests and expert reports. Clients on that path work with the same two lawyers at each stage, which is one practical mark of a small firm.

Employment claims the firm takes on

On the worker side, the firm represents employees in wage and hour disputes. Its pages describe claims for unpaid wages, overtime and medical leave under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California law. Wage and hour cases often turn on records: time sheets, pay stubs and the job duties that decide whether overtime rules apply. California layers its own wage rules on top of the federal floor, so a Bay Area worker's claim can draw on both.

Discrimination, harassment and retaliation

The firm also handles discrimination and hiring discrimination claims. The site lists age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, race and pregnancy as grounds. Related work covers sexual harassment, workplace harassment, employer retaliation, whistleblower protection and wrongful termination. Many of these claims begin at an administrative agency, such as a state civil rights body, before they reach a courtroom.

Whistleblower and retaliation claims share a common thread. A worker reports or opposes something, and the law shields that worker from punishment for having done so. Proving the link between the report and the employer's response is usually where these cases are won or lost.

As a reviewer, I read the employment pages as the firm's fullest area. The detail there runs deeper than the other listings, which suggests the employment side carries a good share of the caseload. Civil rights work sits close by, and the two overlap when a workplace claim involves a protected characteristic.

Business and intellectual property work

For business clients, the firm drafts, negotiates and reviews contracts. It runs internal investigations and audits, and it helps set employee policies and compliance procedures. An internal investigation looks into a complaint or a possible violation inside a company, and an audit checks whether its practices match the rules it must follow. This is the preventive side of the firm's work, the part that aims to settle terms and fix problems before they grow into lawsuits.

When disputes do form, the firm litigates trade secret violations, unfair competition and fraud claims. Its intellectual property work covers patent and trademark registrations, copyright protection and trade secret disputes. Registration and litigation ask for different skills: one files and prosecutes an application through a government office, the other argues a case once rights are challenged. The firm lists both.

Trade secret matters meet at the border of the employment and business sides, since they often involve former employees and confidential material. A firm that handles employment claims and business litigation together can approach a trade secret case from either angle, and Geonetta & Frucht names both areas on its site.

Two offices across the Bay

The firm keeps one office in San Francisco and one in Oakland. That pairing puts it on both sides of the Bay, close to the state and federal courthouses that hear these cases. Each city hosts trial courts as well as a federal district, so an office in each keeps the attorneys near the venues where their matters are filed.

The combined half century of experience the site cites is tied to this region. A two office Bay Area firm with a steady two partner core reads as a setup for civil cases that take time to resolve. New clients begin with an initial consultation, and the same two attorneys named on the site handle the matters that follow.

The firm's published identity

The formal name in the record is Geonetta & Frucht, LLP. The directory uses the shorter Geonetta & Frucht for the listing itself. Both forms retain the same surname order, while the legal name adds the partnership designation. That consistency gives readers a clear way to match the listing with the firm identified on formal materials.

The published San Francisco street address is 100 Montgomery St. This adds a precise location to the broader Bay Area description elsewhere in the review. A reader who searches for the firm by name can confirm the listing against that complete address rather than relying on the city alone.

The firm's website follows the same naming pattern at geonetta-frucht.com. The hyphenated domain places Geonetta before Frucht, just as the legal name does. In my view, the agreement among the listing name, legal name and domain makes the firm's identity easy to verify before contact.

Phone access and the consultation offer

The record publishes four telephone numbers: 510-254-3777, 415-433-4589, 510-250-2743 and 415-237-1212. Two begin with 510, while the other two begin with 415. Each is a distinct full number, so a caller can use the exact line provided in the directory or on the firm's site.

This is a broader set of published phone options than a single central line. The record does not assign a lawyer or practice area to any one number, so the numbers are most useful when kept in their complete form. The separate 510 and 415 groups also fit the firm's established presence on opposite sides of the Bay.

The firm states that consultations are offered at no charge. That is the clearest published term about its intake process. A prospective client can begin with a discussion of the matter without a consultation fee. The offer applies to the consultation itself, giving the reader a precise understanding of what the firm has stated.

As a reviewer, I find the combination of named phone lines and a stated consultation price more useful than a general invitation to make contact. The firm gives readers concrete information they can act on at the outset, including the exact numbers available and the cost of that first discussion.