Penelope Bergman

Penelope Bergman is the founder of BAPC.  Her practice focuses on helping young and established families achieve peace of mind by developing and implementing plans that are tailored to best protect the people, property and businesses in their nests.

Her passion in this area comes from her experience in helping clients deal with fallout from a lack of planning. Ms. Bergman draws upon her extensive experience in all aspects of complex multi-party litigation wherein she successfully obtained multi-million dollar settlements and judgments on behalf of her clients.

Prior to forming BAPC, she founded and managed a successful lender liability and employment litigation practice, Bergman & Gutierrez LLP, where she sued big banks, employers and other business entities for their unlawful and deceptive practices, recouping significant monetary damages for her clients.

Prior to that, she served as national coordinating defense counsel for insurance underwriters, and her practice focused on insurance coverage litigation and business disputes. Such matters involved contract disputes, employment issues, “bad faith” claims, workers compensation issues, insurance agent and broker errors and omissions, products liability, aviation matters, airport liability, environmental disputes and toxic tort matters. Ms. Bergman has also provided several years of “pro bono” service as general counsel to Homeowners’ Associations and has served as a board member.

Ms. Bergman received her Undergraduate degree from University of California, San Diego and her law degree from University of Richmond, Virginia. She also attended business school and was awarded a Master’s degree in Business Administration.  She is licensed to practice law in California and Minnesota, and she is admitted to practice before all United States District Courts located in California.  She has also appeared before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

As part of BAPC’s client-centric process, Ms. Bergman meets with clients to carefully craft their plans, and educates them on the necessary steps to ensure their planning goals are accomplished. Ms. Bergman serves as general counsel to their businesses and advocates for their children’s rights. Her objective is to make this process as accessible, efficient and streamlined as possible so that more individuals are motivated to develop and complete their plans, as well as involve legal counsel before disputes arise.  In addition to creating effective estate plans, she assists families in implementing plans when loved ones pass away, and in setting up guardianships or conservatorships for family members with special needs, when those individuals can not manage their own affairs.

Monica Caseres

Monica Caseres is an experienced and passionate advocate for students with disabilities.  Ms. Caseres interviews all prospective BAPC clients in a professional and caring manner, and she assists the attorneys in providing reliable legal services.  Ms. Caseres approaches each client with the goal of exceeding expectations and accomplishing their unique goals.  Her background in customer service makes her a perfect fit for a firm dedicated to advocating for and helping business clients and the families behind them.