Trail Mates

​​Longtime business litigator Wilkie Cheong has a plain-spoken understanding of horses.

"There's no deceit in horses," he explained. "They can be unpredictable, but they are what they are, and they'll do anything for you. If you're nice to them, they'll be nice to you."

A past president of the Cowboy Lawyers Association, Cheong has spent a sizable chunk of the last 30-plus years escaping from work on horseback.

"When you ride, you just forget about the law and you forget about opposing counsel," the Cheong & Denove founding partner said. "You forget about everything and enjoy the scenery, enjoy nature and just try to avoid getting bucked off."

Cheong's longtime partner, John F. "Jack" Denove, actually introduced him to his first horse, and the two have been trail riding and camping together for decades. Denove and his wife, attorney Mary M. Bennet, are also past presidents of the Cowboy Lawyers Association, and the two were classmates with Cheong at Loyola Law School in the mid-1970s.

"I met him on the first day of law school, and we became good friends," Denove said. "He's got a great calm demeanor. It's hard to rile him."

Although the names on the door have changed a fair bit, Cheong and Denove have been partners for more than 40 years, teaming up shortly after they completed their law degrees at Loyola. Cheong has spent much of that time handling general business litigation and real estate matters while Denove has focused primarily on contingency personal injury cases often involving medical malpractice as well as some product liability and insurance bad faith work.

"Jack's a bulldog. Once he decides he's got a meritorious case, or the client deserves some compensation, he won't let go," Cheong said. "Sometimes it isn't the best financial decision for the firm, but it's always what he thinks is right. ... I basically get out of his way and let him do what he does, and he does the same for me, so we don't have too many fights."

Denove recently represented the children of David Fear, who was killed in 2016 by a retired police dog that escaped a backyard in Grover Beach and attacked 86-year-old Betty Long. Fear came to Long's rescue, hoping to fend off the dog, but died three days later from injuries suffered during the mauling.

Last summer, a San Luis Obispo County jury awarded $13.8 million to Long and $7 million to Fear's children, deciding that the Exeter Police Department in Tulare County was negligent in failing to train Officer Alex Geiger on how to kennel and properly secure the retired police dog. Long v. City of Exeter, 17CV-0529 (San Luis Obispo County Sup. Ct., filed Feb. 28, 2018).

"The police department purchased the dog and trained the dog to basically be a killer, which is fine. The dog served a purpose, but they didn't teach the officers how to care for a retired dog," Denove said. "They sold the dog to this young guy but never told him, 'Hey, even in retirement, this dog is still a dangerous weapon. You still have to employ the same techniques as when he was on duty,' which means the dog can never be left alone unless he's kenneled. ... The department has a lot of immunity, but they don't have an immunity for failure to warn."

Long Beach defense attorney Richard D. Carroll first squared off against Denove in a medical malpractice trial 30 years ago and has opposed him several times over the years. Carroll described Denove as a terrific lawyer.

"Jack takes good cases, and he tries them tenaciously," Carroll said. "He's a very aggressive guy, but I think he's also likable. He's got a very good sense of humor, and I think he relates really well to juries. ... He's gotten some great results over the years, and he's certainly someone you do not take lightly."

Home to four lawyers today, Los Angeles-based Cheong & Denove has seen a fair bit of change over its four-decade run, but its founders both seem grateful for time spent working with all of the shop's many attorneys over those years.

"We've learned from all of them, and hopefully, they've learned from us," Cheong said. "We've had some associates that went on to become very successful on their own, which we are very proud of. And we've certainly been around for a while, but I think if you ask around, we have a good reputation, and we've earned it."