Andrew W. Zepeda

Andrew W. Zepeda has litigated and resolved virtually every type of business dispute in state and federal trial and appellate courts. Gifted in strategically assessing the merits of a case, he spends considerable effort formulating the most effective strategy to protect the client’s best interests, then tenaciously pursues the matter to the desired outcome. Mr. Zepeda’s commitment to client communication and his personable demeanor provide clients with a sense of confidence from the initial meeting through resolution. His 30+ years of experience have also made him highly knowledgeable and effective in the use of pre-trial remedies, including pre-judgment attachments, injunctive relief and lis pendens.

Mr. Zepeda’s impressive track-record includes a U.S. Supreme Court decision ranked by the Harvard Law Review as one of the top 15 of its session, Semtek International Incorporated v. Lockheed Martin Corporation, 531 U.S. 497 (2001). In another first, Mr. Zepeda bypassed a bench trial, instead persuading a jury to award his subcontractor client declaratory relief to enforce a settlement agreement with the prime contractor on the Red Line subway project. Recently, Mr. Zepeda successfully defended a company’s former CEO in trial court and on appeal in a $39 million complaint of complicity in fraud brought by the company’s former private equity investors.

As a real estate litigator, Mr. Zepeda lends unique perspective gained from five years as general counsel to a home-building and land development company. Among recent matters, his early success in making a case for lender liability against a money center bank affiliate allowed him to obtain an injunction against efforts to foreclose, thus enabling his client to achieve a satisfactory resolution of its disputes; successfully defended apartment developers from a judicial foreclosure action and prosecuted lender liability cross-complaints; and, successfully defended a land developer against claims that the soil subsidence and foundation failure of homes built on adjacent property resulted, in part, from grading activity on client’s downslope property.

Committed to education, Mr. Zepeda is a longtime member of the Thomas Aquinas College Board of Governors and a member and past president of St. Monica Academy’s Board of Directors in Pasadena. He also is a member and past president of Legatus, Pasadena Chapter.