Christy Gargalis is a senior counsel at Walsworth, where she focuses her practice on general liability matters, including the defense of insurance bad faith claims. Christy has experience in all stages of litigation, including taking and defending depositions, law and motion, trial, mediation, and appeals.
In addition to her experience defending insurance companies in bad faith matters, Christy has experience defending a variety of clients in matters involving professional liability, premises liability, product liability, real estate, medical malpractice, and unfair business practices. She also second-chaired a month-long trial, resulting in a defense verdict for her client.
- Settled 30+ complex cases before litigation was commenced after company was found to be operating a $200+ million Ponzi scheme, involving claims of aiding and abetting, liability to investors, conspiracy, collateral estoppel and in pari delicto.
- Settled a 20-year patent infringement dispute (spanning six cases) by identifying causation problems and convincing plaintiff to walk away after initially demanding $15 million.
- Successfully argued the subsequent counsel rule in mediation to establish that client was not the cause of any damages and obtained a favorable settlement within policy limits for a multimillion real estate deal where incorrect valuations were used.
- Prevailed on a summary judgment motion in a legal malpractice action where Plaintiffs alleged their claim for $3 million in lost business profits was barred because it was a compulsory claim not asserted in the initial complaint. Established the claim was not compulsory (and hence not barred) by meticulously reviewing hundreds of documents to show (1) as of the date of the complaint, there was no admissible evidence of even a single dollar of damage, (2) any evidence of damages was premature and/or speculative, and (3) damages that arose after the complaint was filed did not make the claim for monetary damages compulsory.
- Prepared a summary judgment motion in a premises liability action against a property manager establishing it did not owe any duty to conduct background checks of its tenants employees resulting in a dismissal before the hearing.
- Prevailed on a summary judgment action in a medical malpractice action establishing the injury arose more than 10 years earlier (even if not recognized) and was barred by the statute of limitations. Defended the case on appeal resulting in a dismissal on appeal.
- Prevailed on a motion for terminating sanctions where Plaintiff failed to produce requested documents and defeated attorney’s declaration of fault trying to set aside the judgment by showing the conduct was by the party, not the attorney.
- Prevailed four times against a persistent Plaintiff claiming coverage for a judgment against his company initially in Los Angeles Superior Court, then Bankruptcy Court, then the District Court in Oklahoma, and finally in the Central District of California.
- Successfully excluded opposing party’s expert witnesses at trial, which had not been timely designated (despite having retained experts to oppose a summary judgment motion) in a medical malpractice action resulting in a dismissal.
- Prevailed on a motion for summary judgment against a mortgage lender in an insurance coverage claim based on the statute of limitations and defended the judgment on appeal establishing the amendment to the statute did not apply retroactively.
- Second chaired a month-long jury trial in a medical malpractice action where the other two defendants settled on the eve of trial and ultimately obtained a unanimous defense verdict in favor of client.
Professional Affiliations:
- Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Association of Southern California Defense Counsel
Outside of the office, Christy loves traveling (having visited about 25 states and 25 countries on four continents), camping, and watching her daughters play travel softball.