Elise R. Sanguinetti

Emeryville

Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Civil Appeals & Legal Malpractice

Elise R. Sanguinetti is a co-founder and name partner at the plaintiff-side litigation boutique Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Torrijos, LLP. Established in 2015, the firm aims to help individuals in consumer class actions, employment law, personal injury and wrongful death, construction defect and insurance bad faith cases.

"I'm really busy with my trial schedule," Sanguinetti said in early August as she prepped for back-to-back personal injury cases in San Francisco and Alameda County.

Earlier this year, she settled a personal injury suit for $28.03 million for a man rendered a quadriplegic in a trucking accident in San Joaquin County. The details remain confidential.

She's looking ahead to a 2024 trial in a wrongful death case. Sanguinetti represents survivors of an electrical worker who was a passenger when he was killed in a helicopter crash near Vacaville in Solano County in 2020. The complaint alleges the defendants negligently manufactured, piloted, operated and maintained the Bell 206 L3 aircraft that came in contact with a 115-kilovolt power line. Everyone aboard was working for PG&E when the accident occurred. Shull et al. v. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., CGC-22-598415 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Feb. 28, 2022).

Over the years, Sanguinetti has enlarged her efforts for plaintiffs by working with and serving as president of Consumer Attorneys of California and the American Association for Justice. Last year, she received the Marvin E. Lewis Award from the CAOC for excellence in trial advocacy.

She launched her career as she entered law school by taking the initiative: she wrote every judge in Contra Costa County asking for an internship. She got a yes from Ignazio J. Ruvolo, who'd go on to an appointment on the Court of Appeal and now works for JAMS.

"As a young law student, I got to sit and observe trials, and I got really interested in plaintiff work," Sanguinetti said of her internship. "Judge Ruvolo introduced me to Judge [Barbara Ann] Zuniga, and I worked for her too. Like Judge Ruvolo, she became a great mentor and friend."

Now looking to give back, Sanguinetti counsels law students with informal lunches at UC Berkeley School of Law and at Stanford Law School, where she's involved in an annual trial advocacy program.

"Law schools have connections with big law firms, but plaintiff firms mostly don't participate," she said. "Plaintiff work is meaningful, exciting, difficult but rewarding."

--John Roemer