Current Employment Position(s)

Partner, since 1999

Year Joined Organization: 1990

Lawyer Overview

Upon graduating from UCLA School of Law in 1984, Alison Turner joined a business litigation firm, Johnson, Manfredi & Thorpe, which subsequently merged with Perkins Coie. In 1990, she moved to Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland to focus on appellate law, but she did not entirely abandon the trial court.

Even as appellate counsel, Alison frequently finds herself part of the defense team while the case is still pending in the district or superior court. Defense counsel for clients ranging from banks to public entities consult her about the steps they need to take to make and preserve the record. In a number of complex cases in both federal and state courts, she has assisted on dispositive motions; she has drafted jury instructions, special verdict forms, motions in limine and trial briefs, and objections to all of them; and she has provided input for various post-trial motions. When the appeal comes, the record is there through the collaborative effort of trial and appellate counsel.

In her years with the firm, Alison has prepared countless briefs and petitions in diverse areas of law, including business torts, contracts, civil rights, employment, and healthcare. She has argued in Courts of Appeal throughout California, and before the Ninth Circuit and the California Supreme Court. From time to time she has been called on to argue a legal point in the district court or the superior court. Alison has been a CEB panelist on law and motion advocacy skills and, in the more informal setting of a law firm, provided litigators with an appellate perspective on various trial court issues for MCLE credit.

Alison obtained her A.B. degree in history, cum laude, from Radcliffe College, Harvard University. While a law student, she clerked for the Honorable Terry J. Hatter, Jr., United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Alison is married to novelist and playwright Lou Mathews. Her poetry has appeared nationally in a variety of literary journals.

Areas of Practice

• Appellate Law
• Business Litigation
• Constitutional Law
• Employment and Agency Law
• Government Tort Liability
• Healthcare Law

Representative Cases

• Barris v. County of Los Angeles , 20 Cal.4th 101 (1999)
• Meister v. Regents of University of California, 67 Cal.App.4th 437 (1998)
• Amylou R. v. County of Riverside, 28 Cal.App.4th 1205 (1994)
• Haycock v. Hughes Aircraft Co., 22 Cal.App.4th 1473 (1994)

West Practice Categories

Business & Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Employment Law -- Employer, Health & Health Care Law, Litigation & Appeals, Federal Appellate Practice, State Appellate Practice

Bar Admissions

• California, 1984
• U.S. District Court Central District of California, 1984
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of California, 1985
• U.S. District Court Northern District of California, 1985
• U.S. District Court Southern District of California, 1985
• U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1985
• U.S. Supreme Court, 1996

Classes and Seminars

• Law & Motion Advocacy Skills, Continuing Education of the Bar, 1997

Past Employment Positions

• Perkins Coie, 1988 - 1990
• Johnsen, Manfredi & Thorpe, 1984 - 1988
• Honorable Terry J. Hatter, Jr., United States District Court for the Central District of California, Hon. Terry J. Hatter, Jr., Student Law Clerk , 1982

Education

• UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, California, 1984
  Doctor of Jurisprudence
• Radcliffe College, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1962
  A.B.
  Honors: cum laude
  Major: History

Published Works

• EMTALA and the MICRA Cap (Contributing Editor), Managing Risk, Summer, 1999
• Wrongful Termination Claims Against Government Employers Theories of Liability and Defense Under California Law: An Overview, Client Distribution, 2004

Address

5900 Wilshire Boulevard
12th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Phones

(310) 859-7811

Faxes

(310) 276-5261

Emails

Contact Us

Websites

http://www.gmsr.com
http://www.greinesmartin.com