ELIZABETH L. BRADLEY

Elizabeth L. Bradley, a career litigator and trial attorney who specializes in legal malpractice law, has been a partner at Rosen Saba, LLP for the last 13 years. She said that once trust is lost in the legal profession, it is a challenging task to regain it.

“It doesn’t matter the level of sophistication of the client. It doesn’t matter how much money is at stake. Once a person has entrusted a lawyer and has been victimized by the system, it’s difficult to regain that level of trust,” she said. “I pride myself on really taking my role as a counselor at law seriously. Whether it’s in my professional responsibility cases or my employment cases where I represent employees who are facing a similar situation where there’s been a significant breach of trust.”

Bradley said proving to be an extremely good listener is an important step to regaining trust.

“Being very empathetic with what a client has gone through and in our kind of specialty area where we’re familiar with the rules of professional conduct is the kind of legal framework needed to help the client and attempt to gain some avenue of trust,” she said. “They already feel wronged and betrayed. There are actually black-and-white rules and laws outlining what these lawyers owe to their clients. Because of these rules, we’re able to explain why that lawyer either fell below the standard of care or breached their ethical duties to the client. I think being able to give them that kind of black-and-white rule helps them to understand that there’s a legitimate legal basis for what they’re feeling.”

Bradley currently serves as lead trial counsel in a financial elder abuse and legal malpractice case, which includes professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims against attorney defendants and other professionals. Antonine Di Modica vs. Michael Kaylor, et al., 20STCV40403 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 10, 2020).

Bradley filed the lawsuit on behalf of Antonine Di Modica and her husband, who has since passed away. According to the complaint, the defendants persuaded the Di Modicas to agree to enter a complicated “deferred sales trust” transaction, where they had to transfer $1.5 million of their ownership interest in their home to a trust formed by the defendants to take possession of the sale proceeds.

Di Modica demanded the return of her money. According to the complaint, the defendants demanded that she release all of them from liability before they would agree to return the funds. They still have not returned all of her money. The matter is set for a 10-day jury trial in May.

Bradley is also a co-lead counsel in a binding arbitration that originated as a contractual attorney’s fee dispute following trial of an underlying litigation. In addition to defending the fee claim, Bradley’s clients have asserted counterclaims for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty, among others, against a prominent Los Angeles litigation firm. The counterclaims involve numerous professional responsibility violations. The matter is set for a 10-day binding arbitration in March 2023.

Bradley served as lead counsel representing a client in a legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty claim against a national employment law firm in connection with an underlying wage and hour class action for which it was alleged that the law firm’s negligence resulted in terminating sanctions to be entered against the client. That matter was settled confidentially prior to a complaint being filed.

– Douglas Saunders