Sheppard, Uziel & Hendrickson Law Firm

Focus and practice areas

The firm keeps a property and civil litigation core while covering several nearby fields. Its listed services include real estate law, landlord-tenant matters, and mediation and dispute resolution. The site also names private for-sale-by-owner transactions, business transactions and commercial litigation, personal injury matters, and estate planning. In my opinion that mix reads as a general civil practice anchored in real estate.

The estate side covers wills, trusts and probate. Real estate and landlord-tenant work sits next to business disputes and personal injury claims. The firm handles both transactional matters and litigation, so one client might arrive for a sale contract and another for a courtroom dispute over a deal that went wrong.

The property and estate mix

Real estate is the thread that runs through most of the list. A firm that does purchase and sale work, landlord-tenant disputes and estate planning tends to see the same asset, a home or a building, from several angles. That kind of overlap lets one office follow a property through a sale, a tenancy question and, later, an inheritance.

How the team is built

The site identifies seven attorneys. Robert J. Sheppard is the senior partner, and Jaime C. Uziel is a partner. The roster also lists Jerod Hendrickson, Lawrence R. Sussman, Peter N. Hadiaris, Douglas C. MacLellan and Elizabeth Sheppard.

A firm this size can put a named lawyer on each file and keep the work close to the partners who lead it. Much of the published detail centers on Sheppard, whose profile carries the most depth. The other attorneys appear by name on the about page.

What Robert Sheppard's record shows

Sheppard has litigated jury trials since 1978. His profile lists real estate, landlord-tenant, premises liability, business disputes, personal injury, general litigation, mediation, arbitration and estate matters. That range tracks the firm's own service list closely.

He began work as a private mediator in the early 1990s and, per his profile, has settled more than 2,200 disputes. He also served as a temporary judge for the San Francisco Superior Court from 1986 to 2019. Time on the bench and years spent as a mediator give a litigator a clear read on how cases settle.

How these matters usually proceed

Real estate disputes in California often turn on the written contract and the paper trail behind it. A purchase agreement sets the terms, and a title report shows liens and easements before a sale closes. When a for-sale-by-owner deal skips a broker, a lawyer often drafts or reviews the documents the parties would otherwise get from an agent. This is general background on such transactions, not a claim about any specific matter at the firm.

Landlord-tenant matters run on statute and local rules, and in San Francisco those rules include rent control. An unlawful detainer case moves on a faster clock than most civil suits, so proper notice and timing shape the result. These cases reward careful paperwork at the start.

Mediation, arbitration and probate

Mediation gives both sides a path that keeps them out of trial, with a neutral third party helping the parties reach a settlement each can accept. Arbitration puts the decision with a private arbitrator, and the ruling usually binds the parties. Business disputes and real estate disagreements often route through one of these before they reach a courtroom.

Estate work covers wills, trusts and probate. A will directs how assets pass, a trust can move property outside probate, and probate runs through the Superior Court when an estate needs court supervision. Each of these moves at its own pace, and the documents a family signs early on shape how smoothly the later steps go.

Who the firm serves and where

The firm represents individuals and businesses in San Francisco and across the Bay Area. Its site says the attorneys have served Bay Area clients since the late 1970s, which places the practice in the region for more than four decades. The site does not list a single founding year.

As a reviewer, I read the firm as a settled Bay Area civil practice built on real estate and litigation, led by a long-tenured senior partner. Much of the published record leans on Sheppard's trial and mediation history. The firm names seven attorneys and handles real estate, landlord-tenant, business, personal injury and estate matters for clients in San Francisco and the wider Bay Area.

Office identity and contact details

The directory uses the firm's legal name, Sheppard, Uziel & Hendrickson Law Firm, as its public listing name. That exact match helps readers connect the directory entry with the firm's own website and correspondence. The listed web address is sheppardlaw.com, while the telephone number is 415-296-0900. These details provide two direct ways to confirm the office before sharing documents or arranging a visit.

The street address is 423 Washington Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, California. The suite number is useful because it identifies the firm's location within the building rather than stopping at the street entrance. In a legal directory, that level of address detail matters for document delivery and scheduled appointments. I would use the full address, including Suite 200, on any written correspondence intended for the office.

Additional education and admission details

Robert J. Sheppard's record identifies the University of San Francisco School of Law as his law school. It also gives 1979 as his year of admission. Those details add a concrete educational and licensing chronology to the experience described elsewhere in the review. The admission year belongs to Sheppard personally and should not be treated as the firm's founding date or as an admission date for another lawyer on the roster.

The law school information also gives readers a precise credential they can use when distinguishing this attorney from lawyers with similar names. In my view, an admission year carries more directory value when it appears next to the attorney's full name and title, as it does here. It offers a fixed point in the professional record without asking the reader to infer seniority from a title alone. The entry therefore provides a clear connection among Sheppard's identity, legal education and California admission history.