Los Angeleles Partner Gary Lorch and associate Elizabeth Vanalek recently obtained summary judgment for their client in a hotly contested litigation concerning control of a limited liability company and involving claims of breach of fiduciary duty, valued in excess of $2.5 million.
The litigation spanned approximately seven very long years. The plaintiff and her counsel were aggressive from the start, filing motion after motion against our client. Gordon & Rees was not the client’s original attorney, substituting into the case after prior counsel had committed a number of serious missteps that significantly prejudiced the client. The Gordon & Rees team was able to completely turn the case around for the client and, after attempts to settle proved unsuccessful, brought an initial motion for summary adjudication to establish and confirm our client’s status as the Managing Member of the LLC and to effectively gut a significant portion of the plaintiff’s damage claims.
The Court granted that motion and, at the firm's request, permitted the filing of a second motion for summary judgment to address the remaining issues. After oral arguments lasting approximately three hours, and after the Court took the motion under submission for over one week, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of our client.