Kendra Bray is a partner at Walsworth and leads the firm’s general liability practice group. Her practice focuses primarily on general liability, insurance bad faith defense, and asbestos litigation where she successfully defends a variety of clients, including insurance companies, product manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, contractors and premises owners. Kendra handles the matters up through pre-trial motion work, which includes discovery, taking and defending depositions of witnesses, drafting motions for summary judgment, dismissal and settlement negotiations, and drafting and arguing pre-trial motions.
Kendra works alongside firm attorneys to regularly provide updates to clients on the current landscape of asbestos litigation and developments in the law. These updates include statistics on recent asbestos litigation as well as in-depth analysis on significant cases and the implications of the results. It is important to Kendra that her clients remain informed on the areas of law that concerns them, and that she keeps up to date with the law to better represent her clients most effectively.
Kendra previously handled premises liability matters of a grocery retailer, property damage and personal injury matters.
- Grob v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc. – Secured a dismissal in a wrongful death matter after filing a demurrer based on a statute of limitations defense. Plaintiffs alleged that decedent’s lung cancer was caused by para-occupational exposure to asbestos from her husband’s work who had previously had his own asbestos-related suit.
- Obtained summary judgment in a personal injury asbestos-related matter filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The grant of summary judgment, a rare win in asbestos cases where there is affirmative identification of the client, came after a successful argument against plaintiffs’ assertion that the client’s product contained asbestos during the relevant time period was wholly speculative. The court sustained Walsworth’s objections to plaintiff’s key percipient witness, and corporate representative testimony, and granted summary judgment.
- Successfully obtained dismissals in asbestos matters on behalf of a number of clients, including contractors, manufacturers and suppliers.
- Successfully convinced plaintiffs’ counsel that equipment manufacturers’ products were not present at the injured plaintiff’s place of employment.
- Negotiated settlement for tenant that was nearly 50% of the demand in a subrogation matter. An insurance company filed a subrogation claim for extensive fire damages in a rental property against the client after the landlord had already accepted client’s full payment for damages.
Publications:
- Walsworth Asbestos Litigation Updates
Kendra co-chaired the March 2011 Business Law Conference for the Business Law Society at California Western, and also served as a Student Alumni Representative on the Alumni Board there as well.
Kendra volunteered for the Church Mouse Marlin Invitational on Catalina Island that donates to local children’s charities since she was young and continued to do so until its end in August 2014.
Born and raised off the coast of Southern California, on Catalina Island, Kendra is a fifth-generation islander. Her father’s side of the family has resided on Catalina Island since the beginning of the town development. Her family worked with Mr. William Wrigley Jr. (the gum magnate) on constructing the Avalon Casino, and participated in the start of the first newspaper on the island. Her great-grandfather also served as a judge.
Appropriately, Kendra possesses a very deep connection to the island. She grew up in and around the water and loves all aspects of it, spending most of her childhood summer in the harbor or on a boat with friends and family. Kendra is a certified scuba diver.
In her spare time, Kendra enjoys trying out new cupcake recipes, deep sea fishing, and exploring the local food.
- Walsworth Publishes 2023 Asbestos Litigation Year In Review
- Walsworth Publishes 2022 Asbestos Litigation Year in Review
- Thorough Discovery Can Be A Difference-Maker in Cases Where Attorney-Referred Lien Doctors Are Used
- Walsworth Attorneys Named to Super Lawyers 2022 California Rising Stars List
- Meet The Team: Kendra Bray
- 2021 Rising Stars list by Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters
- Walsworth Publishes 2020 Year In Review Asbestos Update
- Walsworth Attorneys Recognized as 2020 Southern California Super Lawyers® Rising Stars
- Walsworth Publishes 2019 Asbestos Year In Review
- Walsworth Announces 2020 Partner Class
- Walsworth Honored at OCWLA Gala for Advancement of Women Award
- California Legislature Limits Defendants’ Examination in Mesothelioma Cases
- Walsworth Publishes 2019 Asbestos Litigation Update
- Walsworth Publishes 2017 Year-End Asbestos Update
- Applying Jurisdiction In Today’s Mobile World
- Big Moves by Plaintiffs’ Bar in the California Legislature to Limit Depositions in Asbestos Cases
- California’s Supreme Court tackles the sophisticated intermediary defense
- California Defendants Win in Deposition Limits Debate