Sonia S. Waisman

Sonia S. Waisman is a Partner in the Litigation Department in the Firm's Los Angeles office. Ms. Waisman is an experienced business litigation attorney with over 30 years of experience in complex insurance coverage matters. 

Ms. Waisman has served as national environmental coverage counsel for several large insurance companies and has been liaison counsel in multi-billion-dollar cases. During her career, she has handled a wide array of litigated and non-litigated complex insurance coverage matters, including as related to environmental, toxic tort, advertising injury and personal injury liability coverage, and oil and gas matters. Ms. Waisman's extensive experience includes litigating in state and federal courts throughout the United States at the trial court and appellate levels, obtaining favorable judgments for her clients. 

In addition to her work in the insurance coverage area, Ms. Waisman has been actively involved in the development of Animal Law in academia. 

• She co-authored the first Animal Law casebook (Animal Law: Cases and Materials, now in its 6th edition, with the 7th edition pending publication for the Spring 2027 semester), as well as other academia texts, including Animal Law in a Nutshell (3d ed. 2021) and its prior editions, and has written journal articles on the subject.
• She was an Adjunct Professor of Animal Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles; created and developed the first animal law course at California Western School of Law in San Diego; and was a Visiting Professor at Vermont Law School.
• Ms. Waisman has been a presenter and panelist at various Animal Law conferences. She has also been involved as a judge and drafter for the National Animal Law Appellate Moot Court Competition over many years.
• She also served on the Board of Directors of the national non-profit organization, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and remains a member of that organization.

Ms. Waisman also previously served as a judge pro tem for the San Diego County Superior Court, Small Claims Division, and as a judicial extern for the California Court of Appeal (4th Dist.).