Legal firms agree on committee to lead Eaton Fire litigation

Plaintiffs' attorneys in the Eaton Fire litigation have agreed on a steering committee of 45 law firms. They also agreed with attorneys for defendant Southern California Edison on a protective order for discovery that was signed by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Laura A. Seigle on Friday.

The steering committee will work with liaison counsel to conduct discovery and prepare individual plaintiffs' cases for trial.

The proposed list of liaison counsel for individual plaintiffs includes Rahul Ravipudi of Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP; Amanda L. Riddle of Corey, Luzaich, de Ghetaldi & Riddle LLP; and Gerald B. Singleton of Singleton Schreiber LLP.

The proposed list of liaison counsel for subrogation plaintiffs includes Jordan B. Everakes of Grotefeld Hoffmann; Amanda R. Stevens of Schroeder Loscotoff Stevens LLP; Howard D. Maycon of Cozen O'Connor and Matthew E. Delinko of Bauman Loewe Witt & Maxwell PLLC.

The proposed list of liaison counsel for public entity plaintiffs includes John P. Fiske and Victoria E. Sherlin of Baron & Budd PC; plus, Edward S. Diab and Kristen K. Barton of Diab Chambers LLP.

The plaintiffs' attorneys, and Southern California Edison's attorneys with Hueston Hennigan LLP, submitted the list jointly to Seigle on Thursday, ahead of a case management conference scheduled for Monday.

The steering committee of 45 law firms will advance funds to prosecute the individual cases, according to a proposed case management order. The funds will be held in a joint account and will be administered by a committee established by the steering committee. Joint costs include liability work-up, deposition costs, a joint evidence repository system and joint liability expert costs.

"No member of the steering committee shall have any right to seek or obtain attorneys' fees from any matter in which they are not counsel of record for that specific client, whether characterized as a 'common benefit fee' or otherwise, and neither liaison counsel nor any other member of the steering committee shall seek or receive any such common benefit attorney fees," states the document.

The Eaton Fire is estimated to have caused $10 billion in property damage since it broke out on Jan. 7. At least 130 complaints have been filed against Southern California Edison. All of the actions have been related and, except for one, temporarily stayed pending the March 17 case management conference. Just one firm representing individual plaintiffs has filed its case as a class action, so there is no need to appoint liaison counsel for those plaintiffs, the filing states.

The stipulated protective order that Seigle signed on Friday covers the protection of sensitive information that will surface during discovery, such as financial information, medical records and proprietary business information.

Seigle wishes to avoid a discovery battle early on, so she pushed the parties in the one active case to agree on an evidence preservation order that would be in effect until March 17. Early on, attorneys with Edelson PC secured a temporary restraining order prohibiting Edison from reenergizing its lines near the suspected fire origin. Edison was also ordered to produce data associated with the fire.