Ian Fusselman

 Ian Fusselman spent the first 20 years of his career as a litigator in state and federal court and is now a full-time mediator with ADR Services.

Fusselman began his career as a civil defense attorney, working for six years at the law firms of Belcher, Henzie & Biegenzahn, and Murchison & Cumming. He then joined the San Diego plaintiff’s law firm of Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire in 2004 and was elevated to partner in 2012. His work over his entire career focused on catastrophic personal injury cases, aviation crashes, insurance bad faith litigation, construction litigation, landslide and flood litigation, employment law, real estate litigation, mass torts and other complex litigation.

As a defense attorney, his clients included Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Robinsons May, Cessna Aircraft Company and Progressive Insurance. Notably, he represented the target defendant in the litigation arising from the folk singer John Denver’s fatal plane crash. As a plaintiff’s attorney, he helped to recover more than $185 million in verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients.

Fusselman has received several recognitions, including as a “San Diego Top Attorney” by the San Diego Daily Transcript in 2013, “Best of the Bar” by the San Diego Business Journal in 2014 and as a “Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters, 2014-2019. In 2016, he was listed in Top Verdict as having one of the top 50 personal injury settlements in California.

He has written extensively on issues relating to California evidence law and has a particular interest in the ongoing debate over changes to the mediation privilege.

Fusselman began serving as a mediator in 2014 and is a member of the San Diego County Superior Court Civil Mediation Panel and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing Volunteer Mediator Panel. He is a graduate of the USC Gould School of Law, earning his JD in 1998.  

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

The Washington Post
June 12, 2019
Re: Niels W. Frenzen

Niels W. Frenzen was quoted about the case of Scott Warren, an activist who was arrested and charged with harboring and conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants. In 2017, a directive from then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prioritize cases involving the transportation of undocumented immigrants,"brought to a head the conflict between immigration enforcement and a sanctuary movement that reaches back to the 1980s," explained Frenzen. "While maintaining a spiritual element, the movement has become more political and less religious...especially as the Trump administration draws stark battle lines on immigration," he said. Frenzen's quote was also mentioned in the National Post, Daily Herald, Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazette, Leader Post, Ottawa Citizen, The London Free Press, The Star Phoenix, Canada.com, The Salt Lake Tribune, and The Province.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Lisa Klerman
April, 2019

“Labor and Employment Law Jeopardy,” Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section Annual Retreat, Westlake Village, CA.

Hannah Garry
April, 2019

Hannah Garry co-facilitated "#MeToo" at the International Human Rights Clinicians Conference held at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania Law School.

Thomas D. Lyon
April, 2019

Tom Lyon received a one-year $250,000 grant from the California Office of Emergency Services Child Advocacy Center Program for his and his lab's interviewing work in the Los Angeles County Dependency Court.