Angela and her team are strategic and aggressive client advocates.
Angela Agrusa is an experienced trial lawyer concentrating in reputational defense. She and her team have successfully defended corporations and celebrities against courtroom allegations in some of the most high-profile cases filed across the country.
Angela understands that reputational integrity is critical to a brand. As a trial attorney, she obtains winning verdicts and defeats cases in their nascent stages. In the last five years alone, she has successfully defended brand holders in over 50 putative class actions with combined potential exposure of more than US$100 billion. She often works with clients to find administrative or legislative solutions in addressing multi party and class litigation.
AREAS OF FOCUS:
- Consumer Goods, Food and Retail
- Food and Beverage
- Media, Sport and Entertainment
- Intellectual Property
- Litigation, Arbitration and Investigations
- Business and Commercial Litigation
Education & Court Admissions
EDUCATION
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B.B.A., Loyola Law School Los Angeles cum laude
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B.B.A., University of California at Los Angeles
BAR ADMISSIONS
- California
Experience
- Leading the defense of Danone in first of its kind lawsuit attempting to hold big corporations, such as Danone, The Clorox Company, Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo, and others, responsible for plastic pollution
- As lead counsel to WhiteWave Foods in multi-district class actions with over US$550 million of potential damages at stake, led in negotiating a settlement that preserved the client’s ability to continue making its label claims
- As lead trial counsel for investors in a highly publicized lawsuit against the State of California over a US$2.3 billion sales contract entered into by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Angela negotiated a US$24 million settlement from the state after two months of trial
- As lead counsel to Hilton Hotels, winning the dismissal of two nationwide privacy actions filed in California seeking statutory penalties aggregating hundreds of millions of dollars
- As lead counsel to The Cosmopolitan Hotel of Las Vegas, settling a privacy class action filed in California with over US$2 billion in damages at stake, for US$14.5 million
- Defending NeuroBrands when the company was faced with investigation by the City of Los Angeles and City of Santa Monica, with over US$150 million in exposure for alleged 0 advertising, and arriving at a settlement that protected the popular brand’s rights to bring new products to the marketplace and to advertise them
- Defending Exxon Corporation for 10 years as a principal trial lawyer in three antitrust crude oil pricing actions brought by the State of California and City of Long Beach, with over US$750 million in alleged damages at stake in each trial. The months-long trials resulted in defense verdicts for all three matters
- Lead counsel to Peter Frampton in a trademark infringement dispute brought against Billabong International which ended in a confidential monetary settlement for the rock star
- Lead California counsel to Corning, the shareholder of a large manufacturer of breast implants, in over 1,000 California actions, winning summary judgment that defeated direct liability claims and corporate liability allegations
Awards
Chambers USA
- Band 4, California Litigation: General Commercial (2023 – 2024)
- Recommended, General Commercial Disputes (2022 – 2024)
- Recommended, Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Actions: Toxic Tort – Defense (2023 – 2024)
- Recommended, Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action: Automotive/Transport (2024)
- Recommended, Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action: Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices – Defense (2024)
- Recommended, Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action: Consumer Products (including Tobacco) (2019, 2022 – 2024)
ADDITIONAL RECOGNITIONS
- Named to the Daily Journal’s 2023 Top 100 Lawyers list
- Named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2023 Top 100 Lawyers list
- Named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2023 LA500 (most influential business leader in LA) list
- Named to the Daily Journal’s 2022 Top Women Lawyers list
- Named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2022 Top 100 Lawyers list
- Named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2022 LA500 list
- Named to the American Lawyer’s 2022 Trailblazers: West list
- Named to the Daily Journal’s 2022 Top 100 Lawyers list
- Named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2021 Women of Influence: Attorneys list
- Named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2021 LA500 list
- Named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2020 Leaders of Influence: Litigators & Trial Lawyers list
- Los Angeles Business Journal: Leaders of Influence: Litigators & Trial Lawyers (2020)
- The Recorder‘s California Trailblazers (2019)
- The Los Angeles Business Journal honored her as Los Angeles’ Litigator of the Year (2019)
- Los Angeles Business Journal‘s Most Influential Women Attorneys (2018-2019)
- Century City Bar Association – Trial Lawyer of the Year (2019)
- Los Angeles Business Journal Top Litigators and Trial Lawyers (2018-2019)
- Super Lawyers – Top List Achievement (2017)
- Los Angeles Daily Journal‘s Top 100 Lawyers in California (2017)
- Top Entertainment Attorney, Variety‘s Legal Impact Report (2017)
- Los Angeles Daily Journal‘s Top Women Lawyers in California (2014-2018)
- Southern California Super Lawyers – Top 100 (2007-2018)
- Southern California Super Lawyers – Top 50 Woman (2007-2018)
- Best of Los Angeles Women’s Business Award (2012)
- The Los Angeles Daily Journal consistently names her among the “Top Women Lawyers” in California
- Los Angeles Magazine consistently ranks her as a “Top 100 Lawyer”