Ms. Halbreich’s litigation experience has included a complete spectrum of employment law issues, including Title VII; claims of national origin, disability, race, gender, and age discrimination; sexual harassment; and all aspects of wrongful termination. She has successfully litigated toxic tort and environmental impact cases; and complex business and insurance disputes. Ms. Halbreich also has significant experience and expertise in the handling of healthcare-related claims, including medical and hospital malpractice; hospital staffing and professional licensing; and healthcare benefit disputes.

Ms. Halbreich represented various governmental agencies, including the EPA, while she was an Assistant U.S. Attorney. In private practice, she has represented aerospace companies; insurers and HMO’s; hospitals; small businesses; corporations and partnerships; and individuals.

PUBLIC SECTOR EXPERIENCE

Directly following law school, Ms Halbreich joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles as an Assistant United States Attorney with the Civil Division. As part of the U.S. Department of Justice, she prosecuted and defended civil cases on behalf of the United States and many of its agencies from late 1975 to 1981.

Ms. Halbreich has had extensive experience in federal court. During the first five years of practice, she represented the United States Government in approximately 20 complicated federal trials in various areas including environmental litigation, Title VII (involving some of the earliest discrimination claims on the basis of national origin and physical handicap cases), aviation litigation, design defects involving buildings, roads and other structures on federal lands, intentional and general tort liability, transportation, land use and noise abatement issues around major airports following deregulation of the airline industry.

She represented the EPA in environmental litigation, the FAA in air crash cases, the Department of Transportation in litigation about land use and transportation plans for Southern California, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Agriculture, among others. She has also handled litigation regarding major U.S. defense industry contractors. Ms. Halbreich was primarily responsible for several appeals and has argued cases before United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

PRIVATE SECTOR EXPERIENCE

Ms. Halbreich left the U.S. Attorney’s Office to begin private practice; in 1985 she co-founded Pivo & Halbreich. The firm has specialized in civil trials with an emphasis on professional liability and medical malpractice; employment law; toxic torts and environmental law; trade secrets, intellectual property and unfair business practices; construction defects and other civil trials.

TRIAL EXPERIENCE

Ms. Halbreich has tried in excess of one hundred civil jury and court trials to verdict. She has also handled numerous Binding Arbitrations. Most of her trials have been complex, lasting several weeks to over a month and have involved hundreds of exhibits, as well as multiple expert witnesses. Ms. Halbreich has tried numerous cases in Los Angeles County Superior Court, including downtown Los Angeles (central), Santa Monica, Torrance, Long Beach, Van Nuys, Norwalk, Pomona; Orange County Superior Court; Riverside County Superior Court; Ventura Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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• • Ms. Halbreich was involved in the first lawsuit that attempted to stop the use of commuter lanes on freeways in Southern California. She was also involved in environmental litigation regarding Santa Monica Airport, John Wayne Airport and the Burbank Airport, including claims of noise pollution and inverse condemnation claims.
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• • Ms. Halbreich successfully represented a California company that manufactured and sold products exclusively for the nuclear industry in a breach of contract claim against an Illinois corporation. Ms. Halbreich’s client (the plaintiff) served as the defendant’s exclusive representative for the sale of certain valves used by nuclear plants. She was successful on behalf of the plaintiff in this breach of contract case in obtaining a verdict of over $2,000,000.00.
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• • Ms. Halbreich represented a major California defense contractor in a series of alleged toxic exposure cases involving claims by former employees who lost their jobs following a reduction in force. Former employees claimed injuries from exposure to various chemicals in the work place.
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• • Ms Halbreich handled a series of trials involving claims of medical malpractice, fraud, product liability and unfair business practices involving medical implants and “cutting edge” technology alleged not to have been approved by the F.D.A. Ms. Halbreich successfully defended against these allegations of experimental surgery and experimental technology. She obtained a defense verdict in each of the cases tried.
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• • Ms. Halbreich represented a major industrial corporation in trade secret litigation involving satellite technology. The corporation was attempting to protect its own trade secrets as a nonparty witness in several lawsuits between three major defense contractors. The plaintiff alleged patent infringement and appropriation of trade secrets. The defendants attempted to defend themselves in these lawsuits by claiming that certain trade secrets were in fact public knowledge and technology known generally in the industry to others. Ms. Halbreich successfully prevented the parties in that litigation (her client’s competitors) from obtaining her client’s trade secrets in documents or depositions.
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