I come from a long line of construction contractors. My grandfather, Galileo Tobia, was a master tile setter who migrated from Italy and opened a tile setting business called Tobia Tile. My uncle took over the business and expanded the scope of the business to include general construction. The business is now called Tobia Construction.

My cousin purchased Varden Brothers, the oldest roofing company in Albany, New York.  In my formative years, I was “shipped” to New York so that I could stay out of trouble and work in the family business.  This included hot mopping for my cousin’s roofing company. It was during these formative years that I knew I was “not interested” in working in the construction industry and went to law school.

After becoming a licensed attorney, I discovered that a majority of construction contractors were underrepresented. Due to my family’s construction history, I decided to focus on representing construction contractors.

Prior to starting my own law firm, I worked for a multi-state law firm in Las Vegas, Nevada representing national developers.  I litigated numerous construction cases on behalf of these developers.  This included a case that was appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court and became law –Shuette v. Beazer Homes Holding Corp. That case is still good law in Nevada law.

I returned to California where I worked for another large law firm that represented subcontractors prior to starting my own construction law firm.