The Firm
Founded on a disagreement. Sustained by the tide.
Utah, Bodhi & Riptide was founded in 1991 by three lawyers who met — depending on which partner tells the story — at an admiralty-law conference in San Diego, or in the parking lot at a point break none of them will name. Both versions end the same way: with an argument about riparian easements, settled over breakfast burritos, that has now been running amicably, and on the record, for thirty-five years.
What We Believe
Three rules of the water
Read the water first
No one should paddle out blind. Before we advise, we study the conditions: the record, the regulator, the judge, the forecast. Preparation is the closest thing the law has to a weather report.
Never fight the rip
Some disputes reward force; most reward positioning. When the current is against you, we don't churn water for the sake of billing motion practice. We swim parallel until we're clear — then we come in strong.
Leave the beach cleaner
Every client, every counterparty, every clerk of court should be glad we showed up. We aim to leave each matter — and each shoreline — in better condition than we found it.
Firm History
A brief chronology
The founding
Three lawyers, one borrowed conference room, and a typewriter nobody could operate. The firm's first matter: a mooring dispute, resolved in eleven days and one very early morning meeting.
First admiralty verdict
A cargo-claim win that the partners still describe, with lawyerly precision, as "large." The celebratory dawn patrol that followed is not part of the official record.
Breakwater Plaza
The firm moves to its current offices — a short walk from the courthouse, a shorter walk from the water. The suite number, 050, was the only one available. The partners consider this fate.
The privacy practice
Kira Riptide launches the firm's privacy and incident-response group after observing that her clients' worst storms were no longer arriving by sea. They were arriving by email.
Thirty-five years in
Two hundred coastal businesses counseled. Nine practice areas. Zero former presidents represented. The easement argument from 1991 remains, formally, unresolved.
In the Community
The beach is the point
The firm underwrites the San Diego Shoreline Cleanup each fall — Beau chairs it, John shows up at dawn, and Kira runs logistics with incident-response-grade precision. We also maintain a standing pro bono practice for ocean-access nonprofits, junior lifeguard programs, and first-generation law students from coastal communities.
Our scholarship, the First Wave Fellowship, funds one law student each year who grew up working the coast — lifeguarding, shaping, fishing, or slinging tacos — and intends to keep serving it.
Security & Confidentiality
Guarded like the lineup
Client trust is the firm's most valuable asset, and we protect it accordingly: encrypted matter files, need-to-know staffing, and a technology program run by people who read phishing emails for sport.
Our email and client communications are protected by Proofpoint Core Email Protection — because the most dangerous thing in any inbox should be opposing counsel's reply-all.
Hover for our threat model. (It reads: protected from suspicious swells, spoofed senders, and unexpected attachments.)
Meet the people behind the name.
Three partners, eight attorneys, and the professionals who actually run the place.