Internationally
known trial attorney, Melvin Mouron Belli, formerly headed law
firms headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Beverly
Hills, Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
The Belli
Building at 722 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, was built
in 1849 and is designated as a state and national historical landmark
and the birthplace of freemasonry in California.Bret Harte penned
"Luck of the Roaring Camp" in one of the buildings now known as
"Caesar's Annex."
Mr. Belli
was born to a pioneer family on July 29, 1907 in Sonora, Tuolumne
County, the heart of California's Gold Rush region. Doctors and
educators were among his maternal forebears. His grandmother,
Anna Mouron, was California's first woman druggist. Henri Mouron
was professor of languages at St. Augustine's College and headmaster
of the Young Ladies Seminary of St. Mary's of the Pacific, one
of the first schools in California.
On his father's
side were many early California and Nevada settlers. His father,
Caesar Belli, was born in Eureka, Nevada, and became a prominent
banker in California's Mother Lode region.
Mr. Belli's
legal practice, writings and lectures took him to all corners
of the world, but he made his home in San Francisco with his four
beloved dogs. He was married six times and had six children and
13 grandchildren.
EDUCATION:
Mr. Belli attended elementary schools in Sonora and Stockton,
California. University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law,
Berkeley, LLB, 1933. Subsequent studies in Europe. Admitted to
the U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit; U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of California; U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of California; other U.S. district
courts; Tax Court of the United States; and to all California
courts.
Mr. Belli
has received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities
throughout the United States, including New England College of
Law, Columbia Institute of Chiropractic, and Western State University.
PROFESSIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS
San Francisco Bar Association; California Bar Association;
American Bar Association; Federal Bar Association; International
Bar Association; International Academy of Trial Lawyers (co-founder,
dean emeritus, former director, fellow); Association of Trial
Lawyers of America (co-founder and past president); American Trial
Lawyers Association Western States (past president); The Belli
Society (provost); San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association (co-founder,
first dean); California Trial Lawyers Association; National Association
of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Barristers Club of San Francisco
(past director); Lawyers' Club of San Francisco; Criminal Trial
Lawyers Association of Northern California; American Academy of
Forensic Science; American Board of Criminal Lawyers; Who's Who
in America; Northern California College of Chiropractic (Board
of Trustees); National Advisory Board, American Journal of Trial
Advocacy; Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association; Italian-American
Bar Association; Legion of Honor of Cuba; Grand Collar Order of
St. Brigida; La Asociacion Nacional de Abogados, Mexico (honorary
member); Belli Foundation (president); Trial Diplomacy Journal
(Board of Editors); American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry (board
member); The Common Law Lawyer (Editorial Board); Texas Trial
Lawyers Association; Advocates' Council, Animal Legal Defense
Fund (charter member); Screen Actors Guild.
FRATERNITIES
Phi
Delta Phi (legal fraternity); Delta Tau Delta (academic fraternity);
Masonic Orders; Association Internationale des Juristes Democrates;
San Francisco Press Club; Olympic Club; Cmmonwealth Club; Motorcycle
Officers of California; E. Clampus Vitus, Yerba Buena (honorary
member).
LECTURES
AND SEMINARS
Founder and moderator of the Belli Seminars. The Belli Society
lectures have been presented at major law schools throughout the
United States and abroad, including Harvard, Yale, Pepperdine,
Princeton, University of California, Western State University,
and many others.
Mr. Belli
has lectured to many bar associations, societies, law schools,
and clubs and organizations all over the world.
WRITINGS
Mr. Belli has written and co-written 72 books and contributed
to numerous law reviews, professional magazines and general-readership
publications.
His books
include:
| Captain
Fred Reckenbiel |
1949
|
| The
Voice of Modern Trials |
1950
|
| The
Adequate Award |
1951
|
| The
More Adequate Award: A Collection of More Adequate Awards
to February 1952 |
1952
|
| The
More Adequate Award and the Flying Saucers |
1952
|
| Modern
Trials (6 volumes) |
1954
|
| The
Use of Demonstrative Evidence in Achieving the More Adequate
Award |
1955
|
| Medical
Malpractice |
1955
|
| Blood
Money Ready for the Plaintiff |
1956
|
| Ready
for the Plaintiff: A Story of Personal Injury Law |
1956
|
| Trial
and Tort Trends Through 1955, (12 volumes) |
1956
|
| The
Modern Trial Lawyer |
1956
|
| Modern
Trial Law |
1957
|
| Modern
Damages (6 volumes) |
1959
|
Belli
Looks at Life and Law in Japan
(with Danny R. Jones) |
1960
|
| Belli
Seminar |
1960
|
| Modern
Trials: Supplement |
1961
|
Tort
and Medical Yearbook
(edited with Albert Averbach) |
1961
|
| Belli
Looks at Life and Law in Russia (with Danny R. Jones) |
1963
|
| Modern
Trials (abridged edition) |
1963
|
| Dallas
Justice: The Real Story of Jack Ruby And His Trial (with Maurice
C. Carroll) |
1964
|
| Jack
Ruby, Appellant, vs. the State of Texas, Appellee: Amicus
Curiae Brief for Jack Ruby, Defendant and Appellant |
1965
|
| The
Belli Building: San Francisco |
1966
|
| Trial
Tactics |
1967
|
| Criminal
Law |
1968
|
| The
Law Revolt: A Summary of Trends in Modern Criminal and Civil
Law (Volume l); Criminal Law (Volume 2): Civil Law |
1968
|
| The
Law Revolution |
1968
|
| Angela:
A Revealing Close-Up of the Woman And the Trial |
1971
|
My
Life on Trial
(with Robert Blair Kaiser) |
1976
|
| The
Urologist and the Law |
1979
|
| Product
Liability Breach on Liability, the Blue Chip of Damages |
1981
|
| The
Successful Opening Statement |
1981
|
| Touchstones
of Winning Advocacy |
1981
|
| The
Belli Files: Reflections on the Wayward Law |
1983
|
| Potpourri
on Current Trial Law |
1983
|
| Everybody'
Guide to the Law |
1986
|
| Divorcing
(with Mel Krantzler) |
1988
|
Belli
For Your Malpractice Defense
(with John Carlova) |
1989
|
| Belli
on Blackstone |
|
| String
'Em Up With Caution: Courtroom Champions |
|
GENERAL
DATA
Mr. Belli built his stellar career by defending the rights of
the individual. After graduating from law school, he posed as
an indigent for the Federal Government and rode the rails to observe
the Depression's impact on the country's vagrant population. His
findings were later used as the basis for transient relief programs
throughout the nation.
He was admitted
to the California Bar in November 1933, and served as counsel
for the Catholic priest at San Quentin Prison. He took up the
challenging task of defending men on Death Row.
His work in
representing victims of personal injury and in raising personal
injury awards to then-unprecedented heights earned him the title
of "The King of Torts" by Life Magazine writer Robert Wallace
in a 1954 profile. Wallace later wrote a book about Mr. Belli
and his work, entitled Life and Limb. Mr. Belli won dozens of
multi-million-dollar verdicts, totaling more that 700 million
for his clients.
He has also
been called the "Father of Demonstrative Evidence" for his pioneering
work in illustrating in court the nature of his clients' injuries.
His early use of photographs, movies, scale models, human skeletons,
animals, prostheses, and other devices was dramatic, riveting
and highly effective.
His most famous
and controversial criminal case was his defense of Jack Ruby,
on trial in 1964 for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin
of President John F. Kennedy. He won a reversal of Ruby's death
penalty conviction from the Texas Appellate Court and a new trial
outside of Dallas, but Ruby died of brain cancer soon after. Mr.
Belli's book, Dallas Justice, chronicles his perspective of the
Ruby case.
Other high-profile
clients and cases followed: the so-called "Angel of Death," the
Nevada nurse accused of murdering patients; former television
evangelist, Jim Bakker and his wife, Tammy Faye; Jerry and Helen
Barr, the parents of television star, Roseanne Barr Arnold; the
shooting of Korean Air Line Flight 0007 by a Soviet jet fighter;
torture and beating cases against the late Philippine President,
Ferdinand Marcos; MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas; Union Carbide
chemical disaster in Bhopal, India; Exxon Valdez oil spill in
Alaska; defective silicone gel breast implants by Dow Corning
and other implant manufacturers; product liability suits against
the makers of the dietary supplement L-Tryptophan; and sexual
assault and harassment lawsuits against the Tailhook Association,
Las Vegas Hilton and the U.S. Navy.
Mr. Belli's
association with the rich and famous and flair for courtroom theatrics
earned him his own niche in the entertainment industry. He appeared
in several feature films, including "Gimme Shelter" with The Rolling
Stones and "Wild in the Streets. In 1968 he appeared as the Evil
Gorgon on an episode of "Star Trek" with his son, Caesar. Other
television shows in which he appeared include "Murder She Wrote"
and "Hunter." He was featured in several commercials and advertisements,
and was a guest on countless television and radio talk shows throughout
the country.
