Current Employment Position(s)

Partner, since 1992

Year Joined Organization: 1984

Lawyer Overview

GMSR partner Feris Greenberger loves research and writing. In her student days, she was always delighted to hear that a course required a lengthy term paper. On graduating from law school, she longed to find a specialty that tapped into her bookish passions. It took a few years, but she found what she was looking for in civil appellate practice at GMSR.

In over twenty years with the firm, Feris has briefed more than 200 matters in the state and federal appellate courts. She has appeared in the California Supreme Court and in every district of the California Court of Appeal. She has handled appeals and writs in a wide array of subject matter areas, including insurance, employment, landlord-tenant, contracts, premises liability, and medical and legal malpractice to name just the first topics that come to mind. Perhaps her favorite thing about being an appellate lawyer is that she's constantly learning something new.

One of Feris's fondest appellate memories is of the time when she and Irving Greines persuaded the Court of Appeal to grant rehearing in Bohan v. Cabeau, 2d Civil No. B096717, a matter in which they weren't involved, and in which no one had asked them to intervene. In the original published opinion in Bohan, the Court dismissed the appeal on the ground that the notice of appeal was filed too late. Convinced that the Court had misinterpreted the applicable rule of court, Feris and Irving submitted two letter briefs urging the Court to reinstate the appeal, and the Court did, ultimately ruling in the appellant's favor on the merits. Since it's hard to get rehearing even under normal conditions (that is, when we actually represent one of the parties), this was particularly sweet.

Feris is active in the Los Angeles County Bar Association's State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee. She served as a Temporary Judge on the old Los Angeles Municipal Court. She was a consultant on the CEB practice guide, Civil Appellate Practice (3d ed. 1996), and recently authored What Every Lawyer Should Know About Effective Alternative Research Techniques, County Bar Update, Vol. 26, No. 2 (February 2006). Feris received her bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from USC in 1977. She received her law degree from UCLA School of Law in 1980, where she served as a Comment Editor on the UCLA Law Review. Following law school, Feris, like several of her GMSR colleagues, had the good fortune to clerk for Otto M. Kaus, then Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Five. When Justice Kaus told her, a few days before the public announcement, that he was being appointed to the California Supreme Court, it was one of the most thrilling secrets she was ever asked to keep. Between her judicial clerkship and joining GMSR in 1984, she spent three years teaching legal writing at USC's Gould School of Law.

Feris enjoys reading, cooking, theater and movie going, and doting on her nieces and nephews. She has been married since 1983 to UCLA School of Law Professor David Dolinko, who, contrary to persistent UCLAW folklore, was not one of her law school professors. (She insists they were classmates.)

Areas of Practice

• Appellate Law
• Business Litigation
• Constitutional Law
• Healthcare Law
• Insurance Law
• Intellectual Property
• Legal Malfeasance
• Probate and Trusts
• Punitive Damages
• Real Property
• Tort Litigation

Representative Cases

• Benesch v. Hoisington , (Cal.App. Unpub. Lexis 8512 2005)
• Cohen v. Bank Leumi Le-Israel , (Cal.App. Unpub. Lexis 6644 2005)
• Hanstad v. Truck Ins. Exchange , (Cal.App. Unpub. Lexis 8605 2002)
• Collins Development Co. v. D. J. Plastering, Inc., 81 Cal.App. 4th 771 (2000)
• Wells Fargo Bank v. Bank of America, 32 Cal.App.4th 424 (1995)
• Bank of the West v. Superior Court, 2 Cal.4th 1254 (1992)

West Practice Categories

Business & Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Trusts, Health & Health Care Law, Insurance Law, Intellectual Property Law, Litigation & Appeals, Federal Appellate Practice, State Appellate Practice, Probate & Estate Administration, Legal Malpractice, Real Estate Law

Professional Associations and Memberships

• American Bar Association, Tort & Insurance Practice Section (Appellate Advocacy Committee)
• American Bar Association (Ninth Circuit Editorial Committee)
• American Bar Association (Appellate Advocacy Committee Newletter)
• UCLA Moot Court Honors Program, 1984 - Present (Judge)
• Los Angeles County Bar Association, 2003 - Present (Member, State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee)
• Los Angeles Municipal Court, 1989 - 1991 (Temporary Judge)

Classes and Seminars

• Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law (legal research and writing; agency), University of Southern California Law Center, 1981 - 1984

Past Employment Positions

• California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Five, Presiding Justice, Hon. Otto M. Kaus, Research Attorney, 1980 - 1981

Education

• UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, California, 1980
  Doctor of Jurisprudence
  
  Law Review: UCLA Law Review, Member and Editor
• University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 1977
  B.A.
  Honors: magna cum laude
  Honors: Phi Beta Kappa
  Major: Political Science

Published Works

• Consultant, California Civil Appellate Practice, CEB, 3d ed., 1996
• Gimme 5: What Every Lawyer Should Know about Effective Alternative Research Techniques, County Bar Update, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2006

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