Cathleen Gilliland Fitch

Cathy Fitch focuses her practice in the areas of the defense of lawyers and all professionals, in state and federal court in a wide range of tort, contract and statutory claims, and complex civil litigation at the trial and appellate level. Ms. Fitch has experience in defending many types of businesses in fraud claims, environmental claims, Americans With Disabilities Act claims and qui tam suits in federal and state court. Cathy Fitch also handles administrative matters including those before the California State Bar, the National Futures Association, the SEC, and the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals.

Background

Upon graduation from law school in 1980, Ms. Fitch joined the San Diego law firm of Hillyer & Irwin.

At Hillyer & Irwin, her practice focused on all aspects of construction and real estate litigation, and business litigation. In 1986, she founded her own law firm, Warton & Fitch, which emphasized business and construction, and employment litigation. In 1988, she joined the predecessor to Coughlan, Semmer, Fitch & Pott, LLP.

Prior to graduation from law school, she interned for the Honorable William Schwartzer, United States District Court Judge in the Northern District of California, and clerked in the Office of the General Counsel for the Regents of the University of California in Berkeley.

Accomplishments

Cathy Fitch is a Certified Legal Malpractice Law Specialist. She was a founding member of the San Diego County Bar Association Committee on Legal Malpractice and chaired the committee in 2002. She teaches at the annual NITA Deposition Skills program and lectures for the State Bar and continuing education groups on the topics of legal malpractice, malicious prosecution, professional liability insurance, the use of expert witnesses and the attorney-client relationship. She has been published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal on recent topics in malicious prosecution. She served as an arbitrator for the San Diego County Bar Association fee arbitration panel. She is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association, the State Bar of California where she was a member of the Committee on the Administration of Justice between 1985 and 1987, the Lawyers Club of San Diego, and is an alumnus of the Louis M. Welsh Inn of Court.