- Child AbuseMr. Pieper served as a Note & Comment Editor on Loyola's International Law Review. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Pieper was a legal assistant for the Office of the County Counsel at the Edelman Children's Court, where he assisted attorneys with child abuse and child neglect cases. In 1994, Mr. Pieper earned an internship with the Office of Media Affairs at The White House. He served under Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, wrote briefing memos read by President Clinton, and prepared press releases for members of the national media.
- Wrongful Death
- FraudPond North LLP is dedicated to serving, advising, and defending its clients in a wide spectrum of matters. The Firm’s principal practice area is the defense of complex toxic tort and mass tort claims. The Firm’s principals, Frank Pond and Christine North, have long histories of trying cases to verdict, starting in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office and then branching into various forms of civil litigation, including Admiralty/Maritime law for Mr. Pond and prosecuting Insurance Fraud for Ms. North, though with each of them ultimately focusing on the defense of product and premises liability claims. Partner Michael Graham worked extensively in the area of Employment Law prior to litigating and defending products and premises liability claims with Pond North. All of the Partner-level lawyers at Pond North LLP have successful trial experience with several of them having a significant number of trials started and to verdict.
- MisdemeanorsMr. Pond gained his initial trial experience as a criminal prosecutor trying Felony and Misdemeanor cases with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office (1987–1989) and has continued to successfully try cases while in private practice (1989–present). In addition to trial litigation, Mr. Pond serves as National Coordinating Counsel and National Strategic Counsel for clients in asbestos litigation and has overseen asbestos cases nationally, regionally, and locally for several larger (Fortune 200), medium, and smaller corporate and business entities. Mr. Pond has spoken at a number of litigation seminars in the areas of asbestos litigation, asbestos medicine, and more generally regarding toxic torts and tobacco-related medicine.
- Employment DiscriminationIn addition to his experience with toxic tort and products liability litigation, he has extensive experience in defending employment/labor cases. He has counseled private and public employers in matters involving employment litigation and provided general labor and employment law advice. Additionally, Mr. Graham has tried employment discrimination cases in state court, federal court, and various administrative proceedings. He has also conducted on-site sexual harassment investigations and provided sexual harassment training to supervisors and non-supervisory employees. Mr. Graham is the overseeing Partner for the employment law cases defended by Pond North LLP.
- Employment Litigation
- Sexual Harassment
- Real Estate LitigationPrior to turning her focus to complex toxic tort matters, Ms. Gryder practiced extensively in the areas of transportation-related matters (domestic and international) and real estate litigation, including while in-house for Chicago Title Insurance Company. In addition, she has represented secured creditors’ claims in bankruptcy and receivership proceedings, and has provided representation and coverage opinions in insurance litigation, as well as in all aspects of general business litigation.
- Premises LiabilityOur attorneys have extensive experience defending numerous property owners, developers, and leaseholders against premises liability claims, including claims arising out of paper mills, industrial facilities, warehouses, large retail stores, office suites, automotive repair centers, and other premises. In addition, Frank Pond and Christine North have regularly and successfully defended clients against environmental claims, including State, Federal, CERCLA, Proposition 65, and traditional environmental torts.
- Construction LitigationIn addition, throughout her career, Ms. Gittler has worked in various other areas of law including, premises liability, entertainment, products liability, real estate, pharmaceutical malpractice, criminal, employment, and construction defect. Ms. Gittler has represented large retail and entertainment corporations, manufacturers, contractors, suppliers, government entities, employers, premises owners, real estate companies, and sports teams in federal and California state courts. She has extensive experience in all aspects of litigation including, discovery, motion work, trial preparation, and settlement negotiations. She has taken hundreds of plaintiff, percipient witness, and expert depositions. Ms. Gittler has drafted, opposed, and successfully argued numerous motions, including dispositive motions. As well, Ms. Gittler obtains remarkable settlements on a regular basis.
- Real Estate TransactionsWe handle the full gamut of real estate transactions, including conveyancing, developing, zoning and permitting, with a particular specialty in commercial leasing. We have represented landlords and tenants in hundreds of real estate transactions for many different types of properties, including office, retail, warehouse, industrial, and biotech. Additionally, we have extensive experience in real estate related litigation and mediation, including landlord/tenant disputes. Many of our clients originate from broker referrals, because we have a reputation in the industry for responsiveness, rapid turnaround, and keeping projects on track from beginning to closing. Because of our expertise, we are able to offer the highest level of service at lower costs than comparable firms, and we offer flexible billing options, which include hourly, capped and flat fee arrangements for regular clients.
- Land Use and Zoning
- Landlord-Tenant DisputesJames Buck is an Associate Attorney who primarily focuses on defending clients in toxic tort litigation matters. Mr. Buck practiced exclusively in California until 2011, at which time he moved to Massachusetts, and continued to work with a California firm until gaining admission to the Massachusetts State Bar in 2017. At that point he began practicing in Massachusetts. Throughout his career, he has worked in various areas of law including risk management, insurance defense, bankruptcy and landlord-tenant law. In addition, for approximately two and a half years, he was the Assistant Vice-President, Risk Management for an underground cable locating company with offices in seven states. Mr. Buck has extensive experience in all facets of litigation, including investigation, law and motion practice, depositions, discovery, mediation, administrative hearings, and trial preparation.
- Property DamagePond North LLP provides strategic litigation defense to its clients. Always ready to try a case, the firm is judicious in using this strength, defending each client’s unique goals in litigation. The firm’s primary practice area is the defense of complex toxic tort and mass tort and property damage claims, with specialized experience in cases dealing with cancer of bodily organs and injuries to the respiratory and central nervous systems.
- Personal InjuryFrank D. Pond has significant jury and court trial, commercial arbitration, and mediation experience with particular specialty in the area of the defense of asbestos injury cases (with more than a dozen mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis personal injury and wrongful death cases tried to verdict and over 40 jury selections and trial starts). Mr. Pond also serves as National Coordinating Counsel for three companies, trial counsel, including “parachuting in” for trial at the time of trial start for cases he and the firm had not been previously assigned, and as national, regional, and local settlement counsel. Most recently, Mr. Pond was asked to take on a significantly risky Living Mesothelioma trial in a different state with only 24 hours notice, as the sole remaining defendant and with a jury already selected. Mr. Pond tried that case for the next 3 weeks resolving it favorably for the Client on the last day of testimony.
- Medical MalpracticeChristine M. North has over 25 years of successful trial experience in the defense of asbestos personal injury and wrongful death claims; product and premises liability claims; and medical malpractice. Ms. North gained her initial trial experience as a criminal prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, in the 1988–1993 time period, where she tried over 48 cases to verdict, ultimately focusing on large conspiracy cases. Ms. North has tried several consolidated toxic tort trials, as well as multiple individual product and premises liability cases, in California and across the United States from Texas to Philadelphia to New England with consistently successful results. She has tried over 25 asbestos personal injury and wrongful death cases to verdict since 1994.
- Estate Planning
- Bankruptcy