Overview

Julie L. Fieber is a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, practicing in a wide range of civil litigation areas including environmental claims with an emphasis on groundwater contamination, complex commercial disputes, personal injury and construction defects. Julie has over twenty years’ experience in high stakes litigation at both the state and federal level.

Julie is active in the community, serving as a mentor with BALIF (Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom). She has also been involved in various pro bono housing matters working with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County. Julie is a past recipient of the Fair Shake Award from the Western Center on Law and Poverty in recognition of her excellent work on Cruz v. Sierra Corporate Management, a class action on behalf of low-income residents of a Redwood City mobile home park over illegal and fraudulent rental practices by the park owner.

Julie graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law. At USF, she served on Law Review, was a Dean’s Scholar, and won Cali Awards for being the top student in torts, civil procedure, contracts, legal research and writing, criminal law, complex civil procedure, and wills and trusts. Julie also was an extern law clerk to Associate Justice Ming W. Chin of the California Supreme Court (Fall 1998).

Prior to law school, Julie earned a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from U.C. Santa Barbara, where she was a Regent’s Scholar and a member of the women’s crew team. After graduating from UCSB, Julie spent several years working as a consulting engineer for a mix of government and industry clients. Her primary focus was evaluating the environmental impacts of new vehicle technologies and fuels. Highlights included managing the emissions modeling for the Auto-Oil Air Quality Improvement Research Program, an industry-led effort to evaluate the regional environmental impacts of new vehicle fuels and technologies. Julie also conducted community and stakeholder outreach related to a variety of clean air programs, and developed and conducted courses on emissions modeling and regulations.

Julie is also a Registered California Professional Engineer in Chemical Engineering.

Experience

Representative Matters:

  • Julie represents E. & J. Gallo Winery and Gallo Glass Company in a complex contractual dispute with the recycler that supplies them with beneficiated glass cullet, an essential constituent for glass bottle manufacture. The suit is pending in the Eastern District of California.
  • In spring 2020, Julie obtained final court approval of the settlement in Cruz v. Sierra Corporate Management, a class action on behalf of low-income residents of a Redwood City mobile home park over illegal and fraudulent rental practices by the park owner. Working with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County and the Western Center on Law and Poverty. The negotiated resolution is the culmination of several years of vigorous litigation to protect the rights of this disadvantaged and vulnerable tenant population.
  • Julie helped obtain a substantial settlement in a group of lawsuits filed on behalf of individual homeowners in San Francisco’s Millennium Tower – the massive, 58-story condominium building that began to sink and tilt after its construction. The suit alleged fraudulent concealment against the developer, and inverse condemnation and nuisance against the neighboring property owner.
  • Julie, working with several other firms, represents a putative class of Fresno homeowners in a suit alleging that the City of Fresno’s failure to control fluctuations in the quality of water supplied from a local treatment facility resulted in degradation and damage to residential plumbing.
  • Julie represented local Kern County farmers in suits arising from groundwater contamination caused by neighboring oil operations. The suits alleged that poor maintenance in combination with reinjection of high saline produced water resulted in contamination of aquifers relied on for local crop irrigation.
  • Julie successfully brought suit on behalf of a father and his family after the father was attacked during his son’s baseball game by another parent.
  • Prior to joining Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, Julie handled all aspects of a construction defect case against multiple defendants over defective fire safety systems for The Gap, Inc. After multiple mediations, she obtained full repair costs for the client.
  • Prior to joining Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, Julie helped represent Overstock.com, Inc. in defamation and securities cases related to hedge fund manipulation and naked short-selling.

News

Blog Posts

Honors & Awards

Honors & Recognitions

Julie was named to the Lawdragon Green 500: 2024 Leaders in Environmental Law, and to the 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Leaders. 

2018 Fair Shake Award from the Western Center on Law & Poverty

Past recipient of the Wiley W. Manuel Certificate for Pro Bono Legal Services in recognition of pro bono work on behalf of low-income clients

Affiliations

Affiliations

State Bar of California

San Mateo County Bar Association

Bar Association of San Francisco

Consumer Attorneys of California

Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom

Community Involvement

BALIF (Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom) Mentor

Education

University of San Francisco, J.D., 1999, summa cum laude

  • USF Dean’s Scholar; Member USF Law Review
  • Extern law clerk to Associate Justice Ming W. Chin of the California Supreme Court (Fall 1998)
  • CALI Awards (1st in class)  in torts, civil procedure, contracts, legal research and writing, criminal law, complex civil procedure, and wills and trusts

University of California, Santa Barbara, B.S. Chemical Engineering, 1985

  • UC Regents Scholar; Member UCSB women’s crew team

Admissions

  • California
  • U.S. Patent Bar
  • Ninth Circuit
  • Northern, Southern, Eastern and Central District of California
  • U.S. Court of Federal Claims
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
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