Todd H. Master

Over the course of his career at Howard Rome Martin & Ridley, Todd H. Master has represented over forty municipalities and their employees in litigation and pre-litigation matters in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Sacramento, Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco.  Mr. Master has worked on a wide variety of cases, including police practices, civil rights, dangerous condition of public property, inverse condemnation and catastrophic personal injury. He has represented clients at hundreds of mediations, arbitrations and trials and regularly speaks at conferences in the general areas of litigation and public entity representation.  Mr. Master appears in local superior courts and federal court and has argued several appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, some of which have been published.  Mr. Master has also been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.  

Mr. Master grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. He fled the heat of the desert for Saratoga Springs, New York, to attend Skidmore College where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Government and a Minor in History in 1992.  He spent his junior year of college in Sydney, Australia, where he studied Australian Government and History at the University of New South Wales. While in Sydney, Mr. Master interned for the Honorable Robert Baron Rowland Smith, Minister of Sport, Recreation and Racing in the New South Wales Parliament.

After college, Mr. Master attended the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California. While in law school, he worked for the California Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Toxic Substances Control and the California Department of Fish and Game, Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response.

Mr. Master graduated from McGeorge in 1996 and was licensed to practice law in California that same year.  After starting his legal career with a large national law firm in Palo Alto, Mr. Master joined Jorgenson, Siegel, McClure & Flegel in Menlo Park, where he worked with lawyers who provided legal counsel to the municipalities of Menlo Park, Portola Valley, and Los Altos Hills, amongst others. Mr. Master worked on a variety of legal issues, including the development of local ordinances and law enforcement policies. Wishing to gain experience in litigation, Mr. Master left Jorgenson, Siegel, McClure & Flegel and joined Roger, Scott & Helmer, where he worked in the firm’s construction defect division for two years.

Desiring the perfect mix of litigation and a return to public entity representation, Mr. Master joined Howard Rome Martin & Ridley LLP as an associate in 2001, working for two partners who specialized in public entity litigation.  Mr. Master became a partner in 2007. 

Outside of work, Mr. Master loves spending time with his wife and their children (and their dog), whether it be on a coastal hike, exploring a National Park, on a cross-country drive, on the ski slopes, at the ice rink (watching his son play hockey) or at the dance studio (watching his daughter do what she loves).  Mr. Master is an avid hiker, skier and scuba driver.  He also enjoys traveling (particularly to Australia and warm water destinations to accommodate his love of scuba diving), cheering on the Denver Broncos, Arizona State University athletics, Stanford athletics (his adopted local school via marriage), the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics (yes, Mr. Master walks the fence).