Angela C. Agrusa

LOS ANGELES - Angela C. Agrusa does not generally handle run-of-the-mill cases. Instead, she specializes in representing clients who have drawn public scrutiny.

When that happens, Agrusa counsels the client on how to "make a public statement about an accusation against it in order to appease investor scrutiny or customer scrutiny," or alternatively "when to best leave your defenses to be presented in court," she said.

As co-chair of her firm's commercial litigation group and of its food and beverage subsector, she represented Chipotle in a class action alleging the restaurants' meat and dairy menu items in three states were not "GMO-free" as advertised. Chipotle brought her into the case after a class had been certified, but she was able to expand the class nationwide and then resolve the case for $6.5 million late last year. Schneider v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., 4:16-cv-02200 (N.D. Cal., April 22, 2016).

Agrusa said she presented Chipotle's defenses in court and in public in a manner to demonstrate "its ongoing commitment to being transparent and to being loyal to its customers."

A more challenging battle for her in both trial courts and the court of public opinion is representing G6 Hospitality against charges that its Motel 6 properties facilitate human trafficking and prostitution. Agrusa works with a team of "really talented women attorneys" who handle the hundreds of individual lawsuits against the motels "with considerable respect and dignity" while also vigorously defending the client.

In addition, she guided the company's development of industry-leading policies and practices addressing human trafficking in the hospitality industry. "Motel 6 has approached the human trafficking situation with an eye toward what [it can] do to play a role in reducing the risk" of it occurring in its properties, she said.

She said the company has "contributed millions of dollars to the rehabilitation of women or men who've been trafficked," as well as offering legal resources to help them expunge criminal records or reinstate licenses.

Motel 6 "has taken a much more holistic view of this issue, and I think that's what makes them unique."

Agrusa said that she is proud of her clients and her career working with them. "I have been involved in some really interesting litigation matters involving a collection of really honest and important clients with a lot of integrity."