Litigators whose homes burned find solace fighting for clients

Attorneys who lost their homes in the Los Angeles County fires are representing clients - some toiling to win large verdicts while they rebuild their own lives.

"I'm really lucky," said Alexander R. Wheeler of the Parris Law Firm, who lost his home in the Palisades fire. "Here's why: I am a partner in a law firm that has a lot of resources. We've got 20-plus lawyers. We've got about 70 staff. So, when the fire happened, I was able to lean on my partners and my colleagues."

Wheeler, who represents victims of both fires in lawsuits against the city of Los Angeles and Southern California Edison, said work was difficult in the weeks following the blazes.

"Certainly, the first several weeks, I was not able to be productive as a lawyer," he said in a phone call on Monday. "I just needed some time off when all of this happened."

Fortunately for him, Wheeler was able to take time to attend to the needs of his family, he said - though he didn't stay away for long.

"As the weeks and months drew on, it was actually really refreshing to get back to work," he said. "Whether it's a distraction or not, I don't know. Part of it is it gives you something intellectually stimulating and important to focus on that gets your mind off of other things in life."

Wheeler said he finished his first jury trial since the fires last Thursday. He persuaded a jury to award his client $36.4 million for a motor vehicle injury case. Elizabeth McAlister v. Angela Lisa Thompson, 22AVCV00163 (L.A. Super. Ct., led March 10, 2022).

Another member of his firm, James Fowler, won a $32.5 million jury verdict on March 20 for a motorist who suffered spine injuries in a car crash. Briana Booth v. Samantha Delano et al., 20AVCV00031 (L.A. Super. Ct., led Jan. 17, 2020).

"One of the toughest parts is making sure I had suits and ties, you know, because I lost all those," he said. "Once I got my uniform back, I was ready, and it felt great to be back in trial after having some space to move on in the early weeks and being able to be with my family."

Robert S. Glassman of Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP in Los Angeles shared a similar story in a video emailed to his colleagues on Friday.

Glassman, his wife and his three children lost their home in the Palisades fire, he said.

"Those next couple of weeks were pretty dark - as I think about it, probably the darkest time in my life," he said. "There were a lot of uncertainties, obviously the uncertainty of where we were going to live, where the kids would go to school, but also the uncertainty about my work, my career, about whether I would be able to keep performing at a high level for my clients and my firm, and whether I would still be able to provide for my family."

It was returning to work, Glassman said, that lifted him from the darkness he and his family were experiencing. A meeting with a client who suffered a debilitating brain injury in a bus accident helped give him the perspective he needed to continue, he said.

"Seeing people who were going through a lot more than me, people who were suffering a lot more than me, gave me the perspective I needed to overcome this tragic set of circumstances in my own life," he said. "It made me sort of snap out of it."

"I would have never had this important reminder about the importance of perspective and empathy at this critical time in my life if I hadn't leaned into my work and took the time to meet with my client on that raining morning in February in Downtown LA," he added.

Leaning into the work is also the approach favored by Frantz Law Group founder James P. Frantz in San Diego.

"You have to be optimistic," he said in a phone call on Monday. "You move forward and upward. You'll replace everything, have a brand-new property eventually, if not there, somewhere else, and it's all you can do."

The Frantz firm is representing victims of both fires in cases against public utilities - cases on which the firm's attorneys are currently working "full speed ahead," Frantz said.

"Actually, we work more than we did before," Frantz said with a chuckle. "A lot more on our plate right now for everybody - we got to get this job done."