ClickCease Meet Our Associates

Meet Our Associates

In this issue of FOCUS we take the opportunity to start a new feature focusing on our associates. Here, we profile Tina Glezakos, Clifton Smoot and Martin Neira. Each has unique skills, talents and experience and all contribute to our team approach in complex personal injury and wrongful death case-handling.

Before joining us, Tina Glezakos practiced in state and federal courtrooms around the country at both the trial court and appellate level over a 20-year career. A magna cum laude graduate from Santa Clara University School of Law, her experience includes civil trials, civil appeals, and work in the non-profit sector representing clients with disabilities. She came to Walkup after a successful career working at a nationally known firm that defended product liability, mass tort, and environmental exposure injury cases. Active in continuing education, Tina has presented at various conferences speaking on topics including deposition practice and responding to complex discovery, while also authoring articles addressing civil trial tactics. Her appellate experience includes arguing before the California Courts of Appeal. Moving to plaintiff’s practice she occupies an Of Counsel position, focusing on motions, appeals, writs and trial briefs. Tina lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children, and is actively involved in the PTA at her children’s public schools, helping with fundraising initiatives and tutoring English-learner students.

Clifton Smoot joined us from a well-known Bay Area plaintiff personal injury firm following a stellar career at UC Law SF where he graduated with honors. Clifton has been honored as a “Top 40 Under 40” by The National Trial Lawyers and takes pride in building close relationships with his clients, and in serving people of all backgrounds as they recover from unexpected loss and harm. Recent successes include a multimillion-dollar settlement on behalf of a child who suffered a brain injury and a seven-figure recovery for a welder who was crushed by a construction hoist. He works on the entire spectrum of case type we prosecute. In his free time, Clifton coaches the nationally renowned UC Law Trial Team and volunteers with the Miracle Baseball League of the San Francisco Peninsula.

Martin Neira worked at a prominent plaintiff-side toxic tort firm where he proudly represented individuals diagnosed with mesothelioma, a signature terminal cancer caused by asbestos exposure. He has an advanced L.L.M. degree from UC Berkeley School of Law. Before attending Berkeley Law, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Zurich Law School. Prior to that he earned Bachelor degrees in both law, and political science,  from Saint Louis University in Brussels, Belgium. While attending law school, Martin played in Belgium’s semi-professional basketball league for four years. At Walkup he prides himself on his caring, empathetic approach to his clients and being their voice in the litigation process. His focus is on cases involving wrongful death, catastrophic injuries, product liability, toxic exposure and medical negligence. In his previous work he battled against some of the most powerful corporations in the world and represented a wide variety of clients, including longshoremen, refinery workers, construction workers, auto-mechanics, and asbestos product users.

Download Entire “Focus on Torts” Newsletter – Summer 2024