Mary-Christine “M.C.” Sungaila

Sungaila, who joined Buchalter Aug. 3 to chair the firm’s appellate practice, doesn’t recommend making a major career switch amid the current chaos. “A move during a pandemic is not for the fainthearted,” she said.

She’s seen her new offices, once, to participate in an oral argument before a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel. But most of the changeover was done remotely. “It was a matter of swapping out laptops, and then I just kept working at my dining room table where my dog Betsey can sit next to me,” Sungaila said. “We’re trying to do everything changeover-related over Zoom, but there’s nobody down the hall to ask about things.”

After five years at Haynes & Boone LLP, where Sungaila was co-chair of that firm’s appellate group, she said she was attracted to Buchalter’s entrepreneurial spirit and its legacy. Buchalter’s appellate practice was founded by the late Justice Marcus M. Kaufman after he retired from the state Supreme Court bench in 1990. “Justice Kaufman is legendary in Orange County because he retired here,” Sungaila said. “I have some ideas about training the next generation of appellate lawyers. I plan to establish a Kaufman fellowship for new law school graduates.”

Sungaila is lead appellate counsel for the City of Costa Mesa following a favorable jury verdict that held the city’s sober-living home ordinances are not discriminatory. Yellowston Womens First Step House Inc. v. City of Costa Mesa, 19-56410 (9th Cir., filed Dec. 4, 2019).

“I teamed with Jennifer Keller,” she said, naming the Keller Anderle LLP partner who attained the trial court win. The unanimous jury rejected claims by sober-living home plaintiffs that the city’s ordinances violate the Fair Housing Act. “They claimed we were trying to drive these facilities out of the city,” Sungaila said, “but when you’re dealing with a vulnerable population, you have to regulate their living conditions.” The appeal is in the briefing stage.

In June, in a matter showcasing Sungaila’s busy amicus caseload, her clients won at the 9th Circuit in a case challenging a new state law that forbade an online movie database from publishing information concerning actors’ birthdates in an effort to prevent age discrimination in Hollywood hiring. She served as lead amicus counsel for a group of constitutional law professors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The circuit panel affirmed a trial court’s ruling that the statute is unconstitutional because it is a content-based restriction on speech, rejecting the state’s argument that the speech should receive reduced protection because it is commercial, facilitates illegal conduct or implicates private matters. IMDB.com Inc. v. Becerra, 18-15469 (9th Cir., filed June 19, 2020).

— John Roemer