Bethany W. Kristovich

Bethany W. Kristovich’s approach to litigation is to try to obtain a reasonable resolution as early as possible.

“I really try hard not to have a one size fits all strategy, but to figure out the right way to resolve any particular problem,” she said. “Some cases, that requires a trial. Other cases, you can file an early motion and mediate before you ever meet the judge in person.”

Lately, she’s done quite well. Around this time last year, she was part of a team that settled almost 900 lawsuits in Illinois alleging injuries caused by emissions from a medical sterilization facility.

In April, she won an $88 million settlement from the city of Austin, which had offered only $1.8 million when it condemned her client’s lease to operate part of the city’s airport. She previously had won a $90 million valuation for the lease in a special state court administrative proceeding. Lonestar Airport Holdings LLC v. City of Austin, 1:22-cv-00770 (W.D. Tex., filed Aug. 1, 2022).

Four months later, Kristovich blocked class certification of a lawsuit complaining that an actress who appeared in the trailer for the movie “Yesterday” was cut from the film when it was released. Woulfe v. Universal City Studios LLC, 2:22-cv-00459 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 21, 2022).

She had two successes in October, including what she called her biggest win last year, the dismissal of a $6.5 billion legal malpractice suit against a major American law firm she wouldn’t name.

Also in October, Kristovich won a motion to dismiss MGM Resorts from a proposed class action alleging major hoteliers on the Las Vegas Strip used computer algorithms to inflate room rates. Her team presented evidence that MGM never used the software, and the plaintiffs simply omitted her client when it amended its complaint. Gibson v. MGM Resorts International, 2:23-cv-00140 (D. Nev., filed Jan. 25, 2023).

Around the same time, she settled six lawsuits from the 2021 Dixie wildfire for client PG&E. The cases had been set for bellwether trials in November. Six more bellwethers are scheduled to be tried in April. “We’re continuing to work with PG&E to litigate those cases,” she said. In re: Dixie Fire Cases, CJC21005208, (S.F. Super Ct., filed March 23, 2022).

Then, just before Christmas, she scored another victory for a major law firm by settling a lawsuit alleging Crowell & Moring had a conflict of interest when it won a $642 arbitration award for a client. Walgreens Co. v. Humana Health Plan Inc., 1:22-cv-00307 (D. D.C., filed Feb. 4, 2022).

“I’m going to have to find some work in the new year,” Kristovich quipped.

— Don DeBenedictis