Paul A. Welchans, partner of Chain|Cohn|Stiles, has been selected by Southern California’s Super Lawyers Magazine as one of the Top Attorneys. Only 5% of attorneys in Southern California are named to this list.Mr. Welchans served on the Kern County Bar Association as President in 2009, Vice President 2008, Secretary 2007, and Treasurer 2006 and was a Board Member from 2003-2008.  Mr. Welchans practices in the areas of personal injury, wrongful death, product liability and insurance coverage issues.

Mr. Welchans practices in the areas of personal injury, wrongful death, product liability and insurance coverage issues. He has successfully tried diverse claims including the wrongful death claim of a commercial pilot against the FAA in a midair crash, personal injury claim for a 78-year-old night watchman in a darkened parking lot struck by an uninsured motor vehicle, and broker failure to obtain insurance. Mr. Welchans has been counsel in a number of published cases including State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. vs. WCAB (Leonard) (1997) 16 Cal. 4th 1187 with James Yoro [homeowners insurance coverage for Workers' Compensation claims], Farley vs. El Tejon Unified School District (1990) 225 Cal. App. 3d 371 [school district liability while transporting students], and Blake vs. Moore (1984) 162 Cal. App. 3d 700 with David Stiles [negligent entrustment]. In 1995, Paul obtained a multi-million dollar jury verdict for an individual client, and was featured in the Los Angeles Daily Journal Verdicts & Settlements Litigator Profile.

He taught Social Studies at East Aurora High School from 1973 until 1980 and served as a voter registrar in the Aurora community. In 1980, Paul and his family moved to California to attend law school at U.S.C. After graduating in 1983, he began work at CHAIN | COHN | STILES as an associate and became a partner in 1992.

For six years while his children were growing up, Paul was active in Bakersfield Southwest Baseball as a team coach and served on the Board of Directors for three years. Now that his children are grown, his attention has turned to the legal profession. He is a member of the ABA, AAJ, and CAOC.

He has been married to his wife, Bonita, for 39 years and has two children now out of college; Kelly is an attorney with Arnold Porter in Los Angeles while Kyle is a geologist with Geologic in San Diego. Both he and Bonnie enjoyed traveling and playing golf when time permits.