Victoria Paal is an associate in Sedgwick’s San Francisco office and is a member of the Commercial Practices Group. Ms. Paal’s commercial litigation practice includes real property title and contract disputes; commercial tort actions; land use litigation; eminent domain actions; trademark, copyright, and trade secrets protection; commercial landlord-tenant matters; consumer class actions; products liability cases; and claims involving California’s Proposition 65. Ms. Paal also has experience in the areas of development and entitlements work and land use law, general corporate and business transactions, banking and financing, and real estate lending and development.
Victoria Paal is an associate in Sedgwick’s San Francisco office and is a member of the Commercial Practices Group. Ms. Paal’s commercial litigation practice includes real property title and contract disputes; commercial tort actions; land use litigation; eminent domain actions; trademark, copyright, and trade secrets protection; commercial landlord-tenant matters; consumer class actions; products liability cases; and claims involving California’s Proposition 65. Ms. Paal also has experience in the areas of development and entitlements work and land use law, general corporate and business transactions, banking and financing, and real estate lending and development.
Ms. Paal recently assisted in representing a Fortune 500 retailer in a five week jury trial of a $39 million real estate fraud and breach of ground lease claim involving a proposed retail center development. Plaintiff lessor charged that client misrepresented its efforts to obtain land use approvals to develop the center and that client’s primary intent was to prevent a competitor from obtaining the property. The jury rejected these claims after a showing through land use experts, lawyers, architects, and development managers of the many design, political, and regulatory efforts made to gain entitlements.
Ms. Paal has also assisted in prevailing on behalf of a lending institution, winning a $9.1 million judgment in a foreclosure action. Defendants were formerly the owners of one of the largest fast food franchisees in the country, who had more recently turned their attention to real property development. Defendants had planned to develop the property in issue as one among several commercial buildings in a new business park.
Publications
- Co-author, “RDA's: Last Hope or Last Gasp,” Sedgwick’s Dirt Report, May 2011.
- Author, “Two Issues in Drafting Arbitration Agreements,” Sedgwick’s Real Estate Newsletter, November 2009.
- Author, “Esq. & A: Separation Anxiety," Rental Housing Magazine, October 2009.
- Co-author, "Climate Change: Will Property Owners Weather the Flood?" Sedgwick's Real Estate Newsletter, July 2009.
- Co-author, "California Appellate Court Skirts FDA Preemption Issue Concerning Prop. 65 Requirements," Sedgwick's Proposition 65 Alert, March 2009.
Affiliations, Activities and Accomplishment
During law school, Ms. Paal served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Vaughn Walker, United States District Court, Northern District of California (2007) and to the Honorable Dennis Montali, United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of California (2006). She also was a member of the Constitutional Law Quarterly and a recipient of the CALI Award for Excellence in Negotiation and Settlement.
In 2011, Ms. Paal was honored with the Wallace Sedgwick Client Service Award for her part in successfully defending a national, publicly-traded retailer in a jury trial on a $39 million real estate fraud claim.
Ms. Paal serves on the Board of Directors for Northern California’s Variety - The Children's Charity.