Chapman Law Group, A.P.C.

CEO / Head Attorney David Chapman, Esq. represents clients in high-stakes litigation before state and federal courts, and provides legal advice in regulatory matters before administrative agencies.

Mr. Chapman has experience with a wide range of industries including chemical, oil & gas, biotechnology, commercial real estate, hi-tech, medicine, and insurance. He has represented clients on a variety of contract, consumer, corporate, medical, employment, environmental, personal injury, public entity and municipality cases.

During law school, Mr. Chapman was a member of the Santa Clara Law Review, and served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Joyce L. Kennard, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. As a practicing attorney, he served as a law clerk for Justice Kennard.

Education

J.D., Santa Clara University School of Law (1999)
B.A., English, University of California, Berkeley (1991)

Awards

American Jurisprudence Bancroft-Whitney Award, 1998

CALI Excellence for the Future Award, 1988

Awarded for excellent achievement in the study of Constitutional Law II

Admissions

Mr. Chapman is a member in good standing of the State Bar of California.

He is admitted to practice before the following courts:

• California Supreme Court and all state courts throughout California
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California

Memberships

• American Bar Association
• The Bar Association of San Francisco
• Marin County Bar Association

Senior Associate Russell Jackson, Esq.

Senior Paralegal Angela M. Stidham was born and raised in Maceo, Kentucky. It was from her grandparents, James Hubert Estes and Helena Gertrude Estes that Angela received her strong work ethic, compassion and dedication.
            Angela graduated as class Valedictorian from Owensboro Catholic High. Further, she obtained an associate degree in Business Administration from Kentucky College, where she also graduated as Class Valedictorian. Angela received her Paralegal Degree in 1995 from Penn Foster.
            She began her legal career with the Law Office of Roger W. Miller, Greenville, Kentucky in 1993 as a Law Office Manager. In 1995, Angela continued to work as a Paralegal / Office Manager for Roger W. Miller after obtaining her Paralegal Degree from 1995 to 2005, specializing in civil, civil litigation, personal injury, wrongful death, disability, criminal, bankruptcy, real estate, real estate litigation, family law, probate law and probate litigation.
Angela has been a National Notary Association Certified Notary and a National Notary Association Certified Signing Agent since 1993. Angela was also recognized by Cambridge’s Who’s Who in Women for showing leadership and excellence in all aspects of the paralegal field.
In 1995, while continuing to work for Roger W. Miller, Esq., Angela was appointed as the Senior Paralegal for the Muhlenberg County Prosecutor’s Office, where she investigated both civil and criminal cases. Angela further assisted in major criminal prosecutions ranging from capital murder to receiving stolen property. Angela was a staunch crime victim advocate as well for the Muhlenberg County Prosecutor’s Office. Angela continued to serve in this dual capacity from 1995 through 2005.
            From 1993 to 2005 in addition to working for Roger W. Miller, Esq., and the Muhlenberg County Prosecutor’s Office, Angela operated her own company, Accurate Research & Closing Services, providing title companies with title abstraction, loan closing, criminal research, and document retrieval services.
            Angela moved to Bakersfield, California in June 2005. She first worked for Land America Commonwealth as an Escrow Officer. The real estate boom later slowed down, and Angela desired to continue her legal career, Angela joined a local Law Office as a Senior Paralegal / Office Manager in January 2006, where she assisted in probate, probate litigation, trust litigation, trust administration, conservatorships, guardianships, civil litigation, real estate litigation, and family law matters. During her tenure at this Firm, Angela helped to locate one of her client’s missing children. The mother of the child kidnapped the child and fled the State of California. Before law enforcement could even act to find the child, Angela putting her investigative skills immediately to work successfully located the child in Arizona. Angela worked with the child’s father to ensure he was returned safely to California.
In 2005, Angela became a member of the Kern County Paralegal Association and the California Paralegal Association.
            In August 2007, Angela joined Ericksen, Arbuthnot, Kilduff, Day & Lindstrom as a Senior Paralegal / Collection Manager. During her tenure at this firm, Angela assisted in civil litigation, personal injury, wrongful death, complex litigation matters, trust litigation, probate litigation, real estate litigation, conservatorship, and collections up and down the State of California.
            Angela married her wonderful husband, Chris L, Stidham, on December 26, 2008. They have two children, a beautiful daughter, Sara J. Stidham, and a handsome son, Vincent Wade Sinks.
            Angela worked for the prestigious law firm of Dowling, Aaron & Keeler, Inc., from February 2009 to March 2013 as a Senior Litigation Paralegal. Angela worked on complex civil litigation matters, employment litigation matters, real estate litigation matters, probate litigation matters and complex class action lawsuits up and down the State of California.
Angela served as Public Information Officer for the Kern County Paralegal Association in 2009.
In March 2013, Angela joined Timothy Lemucchi, Esq., as a Senior Paralegal where she assisted in civil litigation matters, criminal matters, real estate litigation matters, probate litigation matters, personal injury matters, wrongful death matters and other complex civil litigation cases. Angela continued to work for Mr. Lemucchi until November 2014.
In November 2014, Angela became a Senior Paralegal | Supervisor for Legal Support Staff and Paralegals for Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance. Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance is a non-profit legal aid service provider, providing legal support to low-income families in Kern County, California. In this capacity, Angela handled domestic violence matters, elder abuse matters, child abuse matters, sexual assault matters, wrongful eviction, other landlord / tenant issues, fair housing and discrimination, impact litigation, civil litigation, probate litigation, probate law, family law matters, veterans’ law, homeless law, real estate litigation, education law, blight, nursing home reform and many other specialty areas of law. Further, Angela supervised the entire support staff and paralegal team for Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance.
Angela advocated for victims of domestic violence and elder abuse to promote better programs and assistance to victims. One of Angela’s greatest success stories from her tenure at Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance was to develop a partnership with local hotels to house victims of domestic violence, elder abuse and child abuse free of charge while they waited to obtain protective orders from the Court. In addition, Angela advocated to ensure that the Bakersfield Police Department and the Kern County Sheriff’s Department implemented a program to ensure that Spanish Interpreters were provided to all law enforcement officers on domestic violence calls to ensure Spanish speaking clients could obtain immediate seventy-two (72) hour orders for protection from law enforcement at the time of the domestic violence call without the language barrier.
From 2018 to August 2022, Angela successfully ran her own independent contractor Senior Paralegal company and provided paralegal assistance to a vast group of California, Nevada, Washington, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Colorado, Oregon, Texas and Ohio attorneys. Angela specialized in the areas of civil litigation, complex civil litigation, real estate litigation, employment litigation, worker’s compensation, personal injury, wrongful death, catastrophic injury, probate litigation, trust litigation, corporate litigation, family law and criminal law.
Angela joined Chapman Law Group, A.P.C. in August 2022.
Angela is a staunch advocate and believes in justice! Angela is passionate about Chapman Law Group, A.P.C.’s clients. Angela puts herself in their shoes. During Angela’s career, she has wept while summarizing depositions in a wrongful death case and has closed her eyes and held her breath waiting for verdicts to be read as if her entire livelihood were on the line.  Those are Angela’s favorite cases. The ones she would have hypothetically worked on for free.  Not every case can evoke that kind of emotion, but the ones that do keep you coming back for more.  
Angela is passionate about the paralegal profession, her family, and life in general. She is a staunch advocate of continuing legal education, believing that one can never learn too much in the classroom or in life. Angela knows that the best legal professionals don’t sit around waiting to be told what to do.  They figure out what to do and they do it.  This is the same passion that Angela has brought to Chapman Law Group, A.P.C. Angela advocates for Chapman Law Group, A.P.C.’s clients the same way she would for her own family – with never ending passion and determination!

Paralegal Jordan Killen joined Chapman Law Group in February 2020. Mr. Killen grew up in Marin County, California and received his B.A. in Environmental Policy from Middlebury College in 2017, graduating with highest academic honors. He has worked in various fields, including International Administration, Environmental Policy, and Behavioral Health. Mr. Killen is fluent in Spanish and speaks conversational French, and has traveled and worked in over 30 different countries. He considers himself very fortunate to have seen so much of the world.

In his free time, Mr. Killen enjoys swimming, hiking, and reading science fiction.

Law Clerk Mary Owens joined Chapman Law Group in September 2021. Ms. Owens grew up in Los Angeles, California.  She studied Liberal Arts and Sciences at Los Angeles Valley College and College of Marin, where she was a member of the Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society. She brings many years of multifaceted legal experience gained from her work in diverse law firm environments in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Marin County. Her Los Angeles experience includes a 10-year association with the law firm of Corinblit & Seltzer, where she worked on the notable cases of ZZZZ Best and Equity Funding securities fraud litigations.  Her San Francisco work experience consists of work with the mid‑size law firm of Nossaman Guthner Knox and Elliot (now Nossaman LLP) and 9 years with Brown & Wood (which in 2001 merged with Sidley Austin to become Sidley Austin Brown & Wood), a firm of over 200 attorneys.

In her free time, Ms. Owens enjoys gardening, sprouting, cooking and baking.

Office and HR Manager Svetlana Lolua joined Chapman Law Group, A.P.C. in May 2022 after her long career in the dental field. While working for small companies, Svetlana developed her core competencies in integrating business systems and running seamless office operations. Having a keen interest in the legal field, she earned her Paralegal Certificate from CCSF where she joined the Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society. Svetlana continued her education at SFSU where she earned her B.S. in International Business, and B.A. in Criminal Justice. Graduating in the top 6 percent of her Business Class, Svetlana received a life membership at the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. Through her professional experience, Svetlana has evolved as an expert and a champion for change in human resource management. She is a proud member of NCHRA, and SHRM, having held her SHRM-SCP certification since 2016. Raised in Kiev (Ukraine), she is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian.

Svetlana spends most of her spare time following the news, learning about wellness and science discoveries, watching movies, documentaries, and National Geographic. She absolutely adores dogs and cats. Svetlana likes practicing pencil drawing, navigating through Wondrium, and reading Sedaris for positivity boosts. Above all, she loves spending time with her family and cannot imagine her life without her twin sister.

Controller / Operations Director Seiko Nozaki