Feature Fridays at Bentley & More – Partner Clare Lucich
Clare Lucich is a partner with Bentley & More whose practice includes product liability, insurance bad faith, catastrophic personal injury, and governmental claims. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine, in 2008, where she graduated summa cum laude and was selected for membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Ms. Lucich received her JD in 2012 from Pepperdine University School of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude and was selected for membership in The Order of the Coif.
Clare is passionate about practicing law and after working as a litigator at an AM Law100 firm, she joined Bentley & More LLP.
Clare serves on the Board for both OCTLA & CAOC. She is currently serving as Chair of the Membership Committee for OCTLA. She has been elected as Super Lawyers Rising Star for four straight consecutive years.
Ms. Lucich’s Experience Includes the Following:
- Lead of litigation team that recently achieved a $30 million settlement for a woman who was catastrophically injured as a result of a trucking company’s failure to properly maintain its fleet of vehicles.
- Lead of litigation team that obtained a $12 million wrongful death settlement against the City of Los Angeles on behalf of the family of Alice Gruppioni, an Italian newlywed tragically killed on her honeymoon when struck by a reckless vehicle on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. The $12 million settlement represents the largest wrongful death settlement reached by the City of Los Angeles. (Gruppioni v. The City of Los Angeles)
- Helped secure a $5.85 million settlement for a temporary worker who was severely injured while disassembling all-metal firework stands (Pinon v. American Promotional Events, Inc. dba TNT Fireworks and American Promotional Events, Inc. – West).
- Co-chair in a slip and fall trial that resulted in a $947,000 verdict, and overall recovery for the client in excess of 1 million dollars. Plaintiff, in her 50’s, slipped and fell in wet paint at a retail property. Plaintiff suffered shoulder and arm injuries, and was later diagnosed with Neurogenic Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, a nerve compression disorder resulting in pain, numbness, and tingling.
- Helped secure a $3.8 million verdict in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of a young man who sustained a degloving injury to his dominant right hand while in metal shop class (Zavala v NMUSD). Ms. Lucich helped prove that the disc sander the student was using violated Cal OSHA safety guidelines and that the dangerous machine should not have been used in class.
- Obtained a $1.885 million jury verdict in Riverside Superior Court in a first-of-its-kind product liability case involving an e-cigarette device that exploded while charging (Jennifer Ries v. VapCigs et al.).
- Secured a $3.2 million verdict in a wrongful death and catastrophic personal injury trial in Bakersfield involving a motor vehicle accident (Rojas v HFS Enterprises).
- Lead associate of the litigation team that represented clients injured in a crosswalk when a driver, due to the public entity’s failure to install proper safety devices, failed to see them and struck the plaintiffs, causing life-long injuries. Combined settlement with the driver’s employer and the public entity resulted in a high-seven figure settlement.
- Obtained a settlement in excess of $2 million in a slip-and-fall injury case against a grocery store on behalf of a client who sustained a back fracture in the incident.
