RONALD B. FUNK, CALS & CFLS

Family Law Attorney

Ron Funk has been an attorney for fifteen years, after graduating from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1996. He also earned an undergraduate degree in English, with a minor in family science, from Brigham Young University, not realizing at the time how much his undergraduate education would later influence his path in law school and in his career.

His English degree paid dividends almost immediately, as the writing skills he developed in obtaining his degree helped him earn the award for the Best Brief in the first year class moot court competition. This continued as he won best brief awards in each year he was in law school, including the Jack Welch award his third year for Best Brief by a third-year law school student at Brigham Young University.

This writing skill and moot court experience led to a position after graduation with the Law Office of Stanton T. Mathews and Associates, where he became the primary appellate attorney for the firm. Shortly before moving on to another experience, Ron was the primary attorney in an appellate case which resulted in his first published appellate opinion, Colarossi v. Coty US, in which he successfully obtained a reversal of a summary judgment in a wrongful termination case. That appellate opinion has since been cited in more than 100 subsequent cases, more than 30 articles, law reviews, and journals, almost 400 appellate briefs and petitions, and more than 200 trial court briefs and documents.

Ron left Stanton T. Mathews & Associates in 2002 to join a business litigation firm, Cadden & Fuller. A year and a half later, he had the opportunity to join one of the largest and most respected family law firms in Orange County, Minyard Morris, where he gained invaluable training and experience in family law. While at Minyard Morris, Ron was able to handle several family law appellate matters, including the appeal which resulted (at least for a brief time) in his second published appellate opinion, In re Marriage of Deffner. Ron ended up on the losing side of a 2-1 decision to affirm the trial court in that case. However, the resulting opinion was widely panned by family law commentators throughout California. Ron’s brief so thoroughly shut the door on the appellate court’s ability to rationally affirm the trial court’s decision based on existing law that in order to affirm the trial court, the appellate court actually attempted to create new law that had never been recognized before in California; this was the focus of most of the criticism of the decision. Ultimately, the California Supreme Court de-published the case, so that no California courts would be able to rely on the opinion as authority.

Ron and his wife, Tara (Schelin), have four children and live in Rancho Santa Margarita. Ron enjoys BYU football and basketball, reading, music, tropical fish, and travel.