Ivan Puchalt's trial practice focuses on products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death and municipal liability. He handles high profile, complex cases and has helped clients to obtain multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements against Fortune 500 Corporations, as well as State and City governmental entities. Ivan is an active member of the Firm's litigation team, representing clients in a wide array of personal injury and wrongful death claims.
Formerly, Ivan worked as a litigation support expert on behalf of plaintiffs' lawyers. He specialized in using state-of-the art digital media as "tools of persuasion" to make legal arguments come alive at settlement conferences and trials. His work helped play a central role in the decisive moments of more than 20 high-profile trials that resulted in multi-million dollar verdicts; and, similarly, at more than 30 mediations. Ivan was proud to have assisted Firm partner Christine D. Spagnoli in preparing compelling visual materials used in the closing arguments of a 1999 case against General Motors which resulted in a $4.9 billion jury verdict.
Ivan's experience in working side-by-side with plaintiffs' law firms inspired him to become a lawyer. In 2002, he began the study of law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles at nights and continued to work days in litigation support. Under his own shingle, Ivan directed, produced, filmed and edited "Day in the Life" videos depicting the daily struggles encountered by numerous victims of catastrophic injuries.
Ivan earned a B.A. degree in History magna cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley in 1998. He minored in Spanish and studied for a semester at the Universidad de Granada in Granada, Spain. As an undergraduate, he participated in an externship with the U.S. Agency for International Development, working in its Global Bureau on various environmental programs. In 2006, Ivan received his J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. While a student, Ivan interned for the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, helping to make Los Angeles Superior Courts accessible for persons with disabilities. He also assisted over 100 dialysis patients in obtaining handicapped parking spaces at the West Hills Medical Center, where the lack of these spaces had severely impacted these daily patients' quality of life.
Ivan is a member of the State Bar of California. He is also a member of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles and the Consumer Attorneys of California. Ivan also serves on the Young Professionals Board of the Western Disability Rights Legal Center.
A United States citizen, Ivan was born in Brazil. He is fluent in Spanish. He enjoys traveling and has backpacked through Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, and China. A talented pianist, Ivan has studied musical composition, and has worked as a recording artist and music engineer.
Ivan, his wife Ayana and two year old daughter reside in Los Angeles and are expecting their second child.