Sophia Arim 

A couple of years ago, Sophia Arim was a law clerk assigned to keeping the McNicholas firm’s thousands of Northern California wildfire lawsuits well organized. Now, as a lawyer of 20 months standing, she is largely in charge of many of those cases as well as another thousand cases against Los Angeles County on behalf of minors alleging sexual abuse in juvenile halls and camps.

“It’s really just me and the partners,” she said.

Arim said she enjoyed her early work as a “fire clerk” because it was so client-oriented, which is also part of what she enjoys as the clients’ attorney. “It really is speaking to people and getting to hear their stories and being a part of this process for them,” she said.

“At any given time, I probably have 15,000 or more clients, individual people, that I’m responsible for and work for.”

That means a significant aspect of her work is keeping the cases organized. The “pinnacle of mass tort cases is making sure … that you know what’s going on at a given moment for [each] client, whether that’s using case-management software or otherwise,” Arim said. “I will just say that people are pretty impressed with my Excel skills.”

Currently, she leads a team of more than a dozen law clerks working on cases growing out of the Dixie, Mosquito and Creek fires. They are responsible for corresponding with thousands of clients, gathering their discovery responses and documentation, and preparing their demand packages for settlement.

Arim has handled law and motion appearances in the Dixie fire cases and in a few smaller cases. The firm represents about 50 people suing over the Barrington Plaza Apartments fire and other plaintiffs in lawsuits growing out of a Delta airliner’s dumping a few gallons of fuel on a schoolyard, both in January 2020.

She is particularly passionate about the hundreds of cases she is managing alleging that L.A. County allowed staff to sexually abuse young people held in its juvenile halls and camps. In addition to those, she is in charge of dozens more cases filed late last year on behalf of former foster children alleging they were abused when housed at the county’s now-shuttered MacLaren Children’s Center.

Arim said these cases are especially rewarding because, in college and law school, she advocated for survivors of sexual abuse.

She said she loves advocating for victims of mass torts in general. “It’s doing the most good on an enormous scale.”

“One thing that’s great about this firm is that they really do give you an opportunity to grow,” Arim said.

— Don DeBenedictis