Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP attorney Deborah S. Chang has been named to the Daily Journal’s list of Top Women Lawyers in California for 2018. This is the third consecutive year of recognition for Attorney Chang who was also named to the list in 2016 and 2017. The publication’s West Coast ranking recognizes 100 women lawyers throughout the state who have made a difference to their clients, their firms, and their profession.
Daily Journal’s special edition for 2018 includes an article featuring Attorney Chang, highlighting a recent state Supreme Court decision in Rosen v. The Regents of the University of California v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County ruling that a special relationship does exist between the university and students with regard to campus safety.
”To me what it signifies is how strong the Supreme Court of California felt about the issue,” Attorney Chang states in the article. “They weren’t even limiting it to the classroom, but they could have.”
In October 2009, Plaintiff Katherine Rosen was a UCLA pre-med student when she was brutally stabbed by fellow student Damon Thompson while working in a chemistry laboratory on campus. In the months leading up to the attack, the university had treated Mr. Thompson for symptoms indicative of schizophrenia and he had exhibited troublesome behavior that raised red flags. Ms. Rosen filed a negligence action against The Regents of the University of California and several UCLA employees alleging that defendants had breached their duty of care by failing to adopt reasonable measures that would have protected her from Thompson’s foreseeable violent conduct. The Defendants brought a motion for summary judgment, which was denied by the trial court. On appeal, two of the three justices concluded that a public university has no general duty to protect its students from the criminal acts of other students. Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP attorneys requested the California Supreme Court review the state Court of Appeal’s decision which was granted on January 20, 2016 in a 7-0 decision.
The California Supreme Court issued its ruling in favor of plaintiff on March 22, 2018.
Attorney Chang has been an integral part of trial teams in many Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP cases where the firm has obtained landmark awards, including a recent $160,500,000 verdict for a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a vicious beating by security personnel for a nightclub and a $32,500,000 settlement on behalf of two clients who were catastrophically injured and two clients whose father was killed in two collisions on Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills, California.
To learn more about Deborah Chang and her remarkable career, click here.