Michael Garey Balmages

Email Address: balmages@oc-mediation.com

Michael Garey Balmages has practiced law in Orange County for over 36 years, and is now a partner in Balmages & Davidson. The firm specializes in general, civil and business litigation and transactional matters. He has represented plaintiffs and defendants in all phases of business and employment litigation and also spent over five years as in-house General Counsel for Ocean Pacific Sunwear, Ltd.
 

Mr. Balmages is a 1972 graduate of U. C. Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law and started his practice with the Orange County office of Kindel & Anderson, working in their business department. In 1977 Mr. Balmages left K & A to form his own firm in Tustin, which specialized in landlord-tenant and business litigation matters with and emphasis in employment law. In 1984 Mr. Balmages merged his firm with the Irvine firm of Corbett, Steelman & Davidson to become Corbett, Steelman, Davidson & Balmages and continued his emphasis on employment matters. Mr. Balmages left Corbett Steelman and in 1988 went "in-house" to become General Counsel of Ocean Pacific, then the world's largest seller of surf and beach apparel. At "Op" Mr. Balmages was in charge of Op's intellectual property, drafting and negotiating its license agreements and other contracts, managing its litigation and all other general counsel activities. When Op was sold in 1993, Mr. Balmages returned to private practice.
 

Mr. Balmages is a long time lecturer for CEB on employment matters and is a Certified Dispute Resolution Act Programs Mediator. He is a Senior Mediator for the Institute for Conflict Management, Society of St. Vincent De Paul. Mr. Balmages serves as a panelist for the Orange County Superior Court Civil Mediation and Early Neutral Evaluation panels and has also served as an investigator for employee-employee disputes for several school districts in Southern California.
 

Mr. Balmages grew up in Orange County and except for his stay in Berkeley during law school he has lived in Orange County continuously since 1958.
 

Mr. Balmages graduated from Anaheim High School and Cal State Fullerton before attending law school in Berkeley.
 

In addition to practicing law in OC, during the last 36 years Mr. Balmages has been Chair of the Orange County Democratic Party; Orange County Chair of Tom Bradley for Governor; Orange County Chair of Feinstein for Governor; a Democratic candidate for State Senator; a Bobby Sox softball coach; a Little League Coach; on the Board of Directors of the Newport Theater Arts Center; on the Board of Directors of the California Age Group Wrestling Association; President of the Canyon Freestyle Wrestling Club; President of the Foothill Wrestling Club; and President of the Foothill High School Wrestling Boosters.
 

Mr. Balmages and his wife, Mary, live in North Tustin.