Alison Plessman

Plessman is a founding partner of Hueston Hennigan who takes on a wide variety of litigation. Her cases range from securities fraud to copyright disputes, from wildfire litigation to white-collar defense.

And as unusual as this past year has been, she has been busier than ever, she said.

She can’t say too much about the case she says is her most interesting current matter because much of it is under seal. She represents minority shareholders of Orange County-based Sweegen LLC bringing a derivative and direct action against the company and its CEO, Steven Chen, who is also its sole board member. They accuse him and others of self-dealing and breach of fiduciary duty. ODG SweeGen LLC v. Chen, 30-2020-01140383 (O.C. Super Ct., filed May 26, 2020)

The case has been keeping her especially busy lately. In March, she fought off a defense effort to knock out racketeering claims and in April she argued an appeal over other issues.

Earlier in April, Plessman argued that a putative class action against electric company PacifiCorp for allegedly causing the huge wildfires over the Labor Day weekend in Oregon and Northern California should be broken apart. That litigation, which seeks as much as $600 million, is one of seven she is defending for the company. James v PacifiCorp, 20CV33885 (Multnomah County Cir. Ct., filed Sept. 30, 2020)

Those are not her only fire cases. She is co-lead counsel defending Southern California Edison in hundreds of lawsuits growing out of the 2017 Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and the deadly mudslides that followed it. Southern California Fire Cases, JCCP4965 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed April 30, 2018)

The two sides have now crafted a process to resolve the litigations. “This has been going on for years and is in, hopefully, its final stages,” she said. “But it takes time to go through each of the individual claims.”

In addition, she is defending a software copyright case in Tennessee for Broadcom Corp. — a client for which in February she also won dismissal of a warranty lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.

“There’s a wide variety in my practice and types of matters that I handle, and that definitely keeps things interesting,” Plessman said.

— Don DeBenedictis