Joseph M. Devine was born in San Francisco on June 15, 1950. He is a graduate of St. Mary's College in Moraga, California, where he earned a B.S. in Economics and Business Administration in 1972. In 1984, he received his J.D. from San Francisco Law School and was admitted to the California Bar.

        Mr. Devine interned at the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, assisting in the prosecution of white collar crimes for the Consumer Fraud Unit. In 1985, he began his association with the Law Offices of Lawrence E. Kern, specializing in the defense of personal injury and automobile accident cases. In 1996, he became a member of Kern, Noda, Devine & Segal, San Francisco, California, an AV rated insurance defense firm specializing in litigation.

        Mr. Devine has extensive jury trial experience in cases involving personal injury claims brought against automobile, homeowners, and commercial insurance carriers. He has also prosecuted numerous cases involving claims for wrongful employment termination, wrongful death, medical malpractice, malicious prosecution and personal injury. He has tried cases to juries throughout the Bay Area including San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sacramento and Marin counties.

        Mr. Devine is a longstanding member of the Defense Council Association of Northern California, as well as the Northern California Fraud Investigator's Association. He has received numerous appointments from the Superior Courts of San Francisco and Marin Counties to preside over settlement conferences and arbitration hearings. He has conducted mediation hearings and binding arbitrations upon the request and agreement of litigants.

        Mr. Devine has lectured at the University of San Francisco School of Law as an invited guest faculty member for the Intensive Advocacy Program for senior law students. He is credited as consulting editor on MATTHEW BENDER's "Automobiles" article for California forms of Pleading and Practice, published June, 1999; and on "Direct Examination of Parties and Witnesses" article for the Art of Advocacy series, published March, 2002. He was a consulting editor on MATTHEW BENDER'S comprehensive California Forms of Jury Instruction, published 2004. He is also credited as co-author of the California Automobile Collision Handbook, Lexis Publishing, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.