The Strength of Dissent: How The Law Office of Scott R. Herndon Advocates for Ordinary People
When facing the aftermath of a serious personal injury, sexual assault, or sexual harassment in California, you might feel lost in a system that often pushes for quick consensus. Insurance companies and some law firms may encourage you to accept a narrative that minimizes your true suffering and long-term needs. At The Law Office of Scott R. Herndon, we believe in the power of challenging that consensus. We embrace the spirit of dissent. We understand that your unique story and journey into healing deserve a voice that stands apart. Ours is a voice like no other.
Our firm is a boutique practice. We choose a select number of cases each year. This allows us to apply an intensity and rigor that high-volume firms simply cannot. We harness intellectual resources built from years of teaching at institutions like Stanford and NYU. We partner with world-class academics and experts. This enables us to provide personalized, science-backed advocacy across Northern and Southern California. We are not impersonal billboard lawyers. We are dedicated to ensuring your voice is heard, and your truth is championed, even when it challenges prevailing views.
In the article below, we provide a glimpse of our commitment to understanding complexity and valuing diverse perspectives. Scott R. Herndon shares his insight, inspired by the professor Cass Sunstein’s profound work on the vital role of dissent in American society. This perspective guides our approach to every case. It strengthens our resolve to fight for your comprehensive justice and recovery.
Why Societies Need Dissent: Cass Sunstein Today
Almost two decades ago, I taught a course on political theory at Stanford University. One of the books I had the pleasure of teaching was Cass Sunstein’s Why Societies Need Dissent (Harvard University Press, 2003). This book served as a generalized introduction to an incredible career of essays on behaviorist economics, sociology, political science and jurisprudence. For my freshman students, this book described something counterintuitive: It foretold the dangers of something our culture held dear to its heart—consensus. One of the basic arguments that Sunstein made in this book is that dissent is often healthy, and that conformity is dangerous. He writes:
Organizations and nations are far more likely to prosper if they welcome dissent and promote openness. Well-functioning societies benefit from a wide range of views; their citizens do not live in gated communities or echo chambers. The fantastic economic success of the United States owes everything to a culture of open information…To the extent that the United States has done well in peace as well as war, it owes its greatest debt to principles of free expression.
Twenty years later, in 2026, I am a trial lawyer who represents survivors of catastrophic personal injuries, sexual assault, and sexual harassment in San Francisco and Los Angeles. I live in Berkeley. I no longer teach, but I do wonder what I would make of Sunstein’s book now, if I were presenting it to a classroom of freshmen.
In its overarching themes, Sunstein’s book was a celebration of diversity, and a warning about the dangers of groupthink, group polarization, and homogenization. But rereading it today feels almost like thumbing through the pages of a botanical study from a lost rainforest. So many of the core institutional beliefs in the book are buckling. It doesn’t seem to matter where one looks—to Congress, the Courts, our press, universities, museums and even the assumed privacy of our own intersocial lives—each of these institutions has been shaken.
Elegy, Living Text, or Omen?
If I taught this book today, which celebrates the need for dissent, would Sunstein’s work be read as an elegy, a living text, or an omen of things to come? Where would the owl of Minerva fix its sharpened gaze?
Perhaps the only way to answer these questions is to describe the day my father was buried. He was young and suffered a heart attack. We drove to his funeral on a February day, almost two decades ago. We were in the Central Valley. The entire valley was blooming, trees opening like fireworks from the Fourth of July.
As we turned to the cemetery, an entire almond orchard had been razed for a new shopping center. The great trees lay like the bones of beached whales, their roots clotted with mud and hanging in the air. The trees had been pulled from the earth for weeks. But as the spring sun warmed and welcomed them of the new year, each of these trees gave one last, enduring set of blossoms, feeding the bees while they lay on their sides.
I remember going home after I delivered my father’s eulogy. By the river, I sat on the stump of another great tree. Green water swirled with leaves and blossoms. I felt something beneath my hand. From the stump where I sat, the green shoot of the same tree met my palm.
Our impulses are to regrow. We are too American to close this book and believe it is a story from a lost life.
Growth and Healing: The Law Office of Scott R. Herndon
Just as life finds a way to regrow, we believe that survivors of catastrophic personal injuries, sexual assault, and sexual harassment possess an inherent impulse to rebuild. Our role is to be your steadfast partner in that regrowth.
We understand that you may face powerful forces that seek conformity. These forces may push you to accept less than you deserve. Your journey involves challenging the status quo. It means ensuring the full, complex truth of your experience is heard and valued.
We bring a rigorous, science-backed approach to every aspect of your case. We work with an integrated recovery team of world-class experts. This ensures that every nuance of your physical, psychological, and social injuries is meticulously documented and powerfully argued.
We are dedicated to advocating for your rights. We seek the comprehensive justice you deserve. We empower you to reclaim your life. Your story matters. It is a story of resilience, and an impulse to regrow.
Contact The Law Office of Scott R. Herndon today for a confidential consultation. Let us help you navigate the legal process and begin your path.
