Serli Polatoglu

LOS ANGELES - Serli Polatoglu frequently finds herself litigating against attorneys more than double her seniority. At age 28, in January 2022, she was the youngest person to make partner at Ellis George Cipollone O'Brien Annaguey LLP, where she moved to in 2020. She practices complex commercial litigation with a focus on cases related to class action defense, false advertising, consumer protection, trade secrets, product liability, entertainment and employment.

"I was one of those kids who loved to argue and negotiate my punishments with my parents, and by negotiate, I mean explain why there should be no punishment at all," Polatoglu said. "I was pretty effective, so my parents thought I should be a lawyer."

She moved to the firm from the litigation department at Paul Hastings LLP with mentors Dennis S. Ellis, who became lead name partner, and Katherine F. Murray. Earlier, she worked as an extern at the U.S. attorney's office and as an extern for Judge Sandra S. Ikuta at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

At Ellis George, Polatoglu's colleagues credit her with an ability to perform top-quality work at near-breakneck speed. They note that she once prepared four dispositive motions and an appellate brief over the span of five days.

"That was extremely stressful and I didn't sleep much," she said. "But I work best under pressure. There's a real rush and a sense of purpose that comes with putting out fires even as you put out a really good work product." The appellate brief and most of the motions--related to Daubert issues in a trade secrets case--were successful, Polatoglu said.

In another matter, she defended Pacific Gas & Electric Co. against class action claims under the California Invasion of Privacy Act by plaintiffs who alleged that PG&E's website used software tracking users' web activity in violation of the statute. The plaintiffs sought hefty statutory fines and damages. Rahman v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 3:20-cv-09315, N.D. Cal., filed Dec. 23, 2020).

Within four months, Polatoglu and colleagues had persuaded the plaintiffs to voluntarily dismiss the case based on a unique statutory interpretation argument. "The plaintiffs had with some success sued other companies, but our client was a public utility subject to a host of regulations--among them, the disclosure of cookies, which was the basis of the complaint," Polatoglu said. "We pointed out there were omissions from their complaint and within three days of our making that argument, they voluntarily withdrew. It worked out really well for us."

The positive result came from hard work. "Our approach is to do a deep dive into a new case as early as possible to avoid surprises," she said. "When you do, nine times out of ten, you can show you're in the right. We get the job done."