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Mary-Christine (M.C.) Sungaila
Ms. Sungaila joined the firm in 1997 and became a partner in 2003.
Ms. Sungaila’s appellate work, which focuses on complex tort cases raising cutting-edge issues, has helped define the scope of the duty to warn sophisticated users of product hazards, set the guidelines for admitting expert testimony at trial, and overturned multimillion dollar judgments.
Ms. Sungaila has also consistently helped secure important rights for women and girls internationally, nationally, and throughout California. Ms. Sungaila has been pro bono counsel of record for amici in, or consulted on, over 17 women’s and civil rights cases before the United States Supreme Court (see, e.g., United States v. Lanier (1997) 117 S.Ct. 1219; Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education (1999) 526 U.S. 629), the Inter-American Commission, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal.
She has contributed to and consulted on two CEB treatises on California writ practice. Her various articles on effective amicus briefing, appellate brief writing, and gender issues have been cited in over 35 law review articles, treatises, and blogs and have appeared as required reading on law school syllabi throughout North America. Ms. Sungaila has also contributed posts as an invited guest blogger on the ABA Top 100 Blawg site IntLawGrrls and as the first West Coast guest blogger for the Toxic Tort Litigation Blog.
She has received multiple awards and recognition for her work. In 2010, she was recognized as one of the Top 100 Women Litigators in California by the Daily Journal and received the Frances E. Willard Award, Alpha Phi International Fraternity's highest alumnae honor for career achievement on a national or international level. She was also included in the Best Lawyers of America (2010) and the Top 50 Southern California Female Super Lawyers (2008 through 2010). She has appeared on the Southern California Super Lawyers list since its inception in 2004 and is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell. She was also previously named one of California’s Top 75 women litigators by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal and one of the Top 25 lawyers in the Valley by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. She has been profiled in the Los Angeles Times, National Law Journal, Stanford Magazine, and the Stanford Professional Women of Los Angeles Newsletter. Her expert commentary has appeared in a variety of publications ranging from the ABA Journal and National Law Journal to the Los Angeles Times and USA Today.
Prior to joining Horvitz & Levy, Ms. Sungaila was a Litigation Associate with Irell & Manella, and held judicial clerkships with the Hon. Ferdinand F. Fernandez, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and the Hon. Alicemarie H. Stotler, U.S. District Court, Central District of California. She received her Bachelor of Arts with multiple honors from Stanford University and her Juris Doctor from the University of California at Los Angeles.
