Christine Spagnoli

Christine D. Spagnoli focuses on product liability, personal injury, and legal malpractice. She was a central member of the trial team in the 1999 General Motors defective fuel tank case that produced a landmark $4.9 billion verdict, and co-counsel in a $58 million verdict for a man severely burned by a defective O-ring, the largest personal injury verdict in California at the time. She has obtained significant results in Ford 15-passenger van cases: a $73 million verdict in Sacramento (including $50 million in punitive damages) and a $25.9 million verdict in Florida, both named among national Top 100 Verdicts. She served as plaintiffs' co-lead counsel in the Federal Express Orland bus crash cases, which settled on the eve of trial in 2017. She earned a 2017 Harry M. Philo Award from AAJ and was the first woman named Trial Lawyer of the Year by CAALA in 2012. She has served as President of CAOC (2009) and CAALA (2002) and was appointed by the Chief Justice to the CACI civil jury instructions committee. She received her B.A. from UCLA (1978) and her J.D. cum laude from Loyola Law School (1986).