Nabilah Hossain

Plaintiffs' Mass Casualty, Personal Injury & Sexual Abuse Litigation

San Francisco

Nabilah Hossain joined Cotchett Pitre in late 2020 after about eight years as a prosecutor. Within just a couple of years, she was taking leadership roles in California wildfire litigation and helping bring in confidential settlements with PG&E for the firm's clients from the Kinkaid and Dixie fires.

Now, she is on the plaintiffs' steering committee in the Maui wildfires litigation. In the Matter of the Petition for the Coordination of Maui Fire Cases, 2CSP-23-0000057 (Hi. 2nd Circ. Ct., filed Oct. 26, 2023).

"I am responsible for the day-to-day, overall big picture litigation, the execution of that litigation" for the firm, she said. "I took the first deposition in the case. I make sure that we are going to be ready ... when we need to ultimately try it."

Hossain credits her success managing such big cases with her organizational skills and her memory. "I think that is one of my best skill sets," she said. "I've got a great memory. ... I can read something once, and I know exactly where to find it" and be able to act on it promptly when needed.

Case management or database software merely "mimics the structure of paper being in a box," she said. "You still need to know what box you're looking into and what piece of paper you're looking for. And there's no software or AI that can help you figure that out."

About two months after joining her firm, Hossain began working on discovery and proof issues in the consolidated litigation over the March 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max in which 157 passengers and crew died.

"Ultimately, Boeing admitted to liability, and we have been working on the damages for each of our individual clients since then," she said. Hossain has brought in significant settlements for several of the firm's clients. In re: Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 Crash, 1:19-cv-02170 (N.D. Ill, filed March 28, 2019).

In January last year, Hossain and colleagues obtained a $10 million settlement for two young children who had sued their mother over her role in the murder of their father. The mother was acquitted in an earlier criminal trial. In Cudd v. Li, 18-CIV-01355 (S.M. Super. Ct., filed March 16, 2018).

"I really am proud of that because I think that when these two kids get older and learn about the death of their father ... they will have the financial freedom and independence to make their own decisions in life ... and they won't be beholden to their mother because of financial reasons," she said.

Now, Hossain is actively working to expand her practice to represent victims of sex abuse, a type of case she prosecuted for several years as an assistant district attorney in the sex crime unit of the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Working as a plaintiff's attorney is "very similar to working at a DA's office in that you really represent justice, and you have victims that really need your assistance," she said.

-- Don DeBenedictis