Deborah S. Chang

It took a decade to get a trial for Chang's client, Katherine Rosen, a UCLA student who was stabbed in an organic chemistry laboratory on campus.

"In the middle of her class she gets slashed across the throat, she was stabbed multiple times and she has never had her day in court," Chang said.

That's because she first had to prove that universities have a duty to protect students from known dangers in the classroom.

Such a law already exists for primary school students since they have an obligation to be there. But the Regents of the University of California system filed a motion for summary judgment arguing they had no such duty.

The case went all the way to the Supreme Court of California, which unanimously sided with Chang.

"Rather, the school's duty is to take reasonable steps to protect students when it becomes aware of a foreseeable threat to their safety," the ruling read. "The reasonableness of a school's actions in response to a potential threat is a question of breach."

Now, the case involving Rosen and UCLA has been sent back to the Los Angeles County Superior Court with a trial setting conference set in October, Chang said.

But before Rosen has her first day in court, the Supreme Court ruling pointed out one fact that Chang will be relying on to show the university failed its duty in protecting the victim: that the stabbing suspect, David Thompson, was a diagnosed schizophrenic.

"There is always red flags," Chang said. " ... Thompson was excluded from all university housing because he was so dangerous."

Chang is no stranger to cases with sensitive subject matters, including ones with large classes of victims such as victory against Massage Envy and a former masseuse who is accused of sexually assaulting more than 100 female clients.

She recalled one her earliest cases, a pro bono matter in which she represented prison inmates living with HIV, over how they were being segregated and restricted from places like the prison library. The matter eventually settled.

"It literally became the guideline of how all prisoners with HIV and AIDS would be treated throughout the country," Chang said. " ... I realized that one case could affect so many different lives."

-- Arin Mikailian