About
Derek M. Wagley is a California attorney and certified mediator whose practice focuses on estate planning and mediation. Based in Lafayette and serving clients throughout Lamorinda, Contra Costa County, and the broader SF Bay Area, Derek brings more than a decade of legal experience together with over 20 years of success as a California real estate broker. While Derek's legal experience includes both civil litigation and criminal defense, his practice today is concentrated on estate planning and mediation.
Derek works with individuals and families at different stages of life — from establishing an initial estate plan to addressing more complex issues involving significant real estate holdings, blended families, special needs planning, aging parents, trust administration, and the transfer of assets from one generation to the next. His approach is practical and individualized, with careful attention to how a plan will actually function when it is needed.
His extensive real estate background brings an additional dimension to his legal practice. For more than two decades, Derek has successfully represented buyers, sellers, investors, trustees, executors, banking institutions acting in a fiduciary capacity, and families in California real estate transactions. In the Lamorinda area and across the Bay Area, where real property often represents a substantial portion of a family's wealth, that experience provides valuable insight into property ownership, title, valuation, and the practical considerations involved when real estate is held, transferred, sold, or inherited.
Derek's background in litigation and dispute resolution also informs his mediation practice. He has met with hundreds of litigants, including many parties on the day of trial, helping them evaluate risk, identify the issues that truly matter, and pursue practical resolutions while retaining control over the outcome.
Derek is a graduate of the University of California, Davis and JFK School of Law. He has been recognized by the State Bar of California, U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, and the Contra Costa Superior Court for his pro bono legal work.