Hon. Gail A. Andler (Ret.) joins JAMS as a full-time neutral after more than 22 years on the Orange County Superior Court where she served from 2007-2017 on the Complex Civil Litigation Panel. Judge Andler has experience in business, construction defect, personal injury, family law, and eminent domain disputes. She has managed large coordinated and consolidated product defect and injury cases in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and automotive industries, in addition to consumer and employment class actions and PAGA cases. Her time with the court also included serving two terms as the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court’s Appellate Division and she is the past President of the American College of Business Court Judges.
Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Andler represented individuals and closely held corporations in business and real estate litigation, including developers and design professionals. She also gained substantial jury trial experience as a prosecutor.
Judge Andler has been praised by attorneys for her commitment to resolution and her creativity. As a judge, she worked with parties to find common ground and create efficiencies in the legal process.
ADR Experience and Qualifications
- More than 22 years on the Orange County Superior Court
- Two terms as Presiding Judge of the Superior Court’s Appellate Division
- Developed the Early Legal Assessment program, similar to a confidential mediation offered by the courts where parties agree to having a neutral assess their case
- Served on the Orange County Superior Court's ADR Committee
- Volunteered to conduct settlement conferences at law firms when the Court was closed during the court funding crisis
Representative Matters
- Business/Commercial
- Wide variety of actions alleging breach of contract or tort in commercial transactions; disputes concerning purchase and sale of business or business assets including intellectual property; Trade Secret and unfair competition litigation; partnership disputes; corporate governance disputes
- Child Sexual Abuse/Misconduct
- Former sex crimes prosecutor who worked with victims and victim advocates and made filing decisions
- Former Supervising Judge of Juvenile Dependence Court presiding over a caseload of, and supervising other judges with, cases of child sexual abuse
- Trained as a CASA advocate on the impacts and signs of child sexual trauma
- As a judge heard civil cases (in additiona to criminal and family) alleging coaches, teachers, spiritual leaders, and others engaged in improper sexual conduct or sexually abused minors
- As a neutral, mediated and arbitrated cases ranging from allegations minors were improperly exposed to adult nudity, on one end of the spectrum, to molestation and rape in the other, including statutory rape
- SafeSport training
- Class Action/Mass Tort
- Data Breach and privacy claims, including consumer class action alleging the release of thousands of records of confidential medical information by defendant hospital
- Pharmaceutical and medical device cases, including allegations that pain pumps, SSRIs, pain patches, and eye drops caused serious bodily injury or death
- Multiple related claims brought against automobile manufacturer for defective engines in vehicles
- Hundreds of related claims coordinated with MDL alleging defective manufacture and design of plumbing products with related coverage and subrogation actions
- California Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act claims to recover damages from investors who were alleged to have profited from a Ponzi scheme perpetrated against members of a tight knit ethnic community
- Home loan mortgage fraud claims, including mass action brought by more than 800 borrowers
- Food additive and nutritional supplement cases, including consumer class action against vitamin manufacturer alleging product caused male gynecomastia, and action by individual alleging microwave popcorn flavoring caused lung disease
- Construction/Construction Defect
- Delay damages, construction, and design defects alleged in connection with hotel construction, large scale commercial projects, and school facilities
- Water intrusion, soils problems, and other defects alleged in construction of residential properties ranging from single family homes to master planned communities and apartment communities
- Construction-related insurance coverage and contribution actions, including actions relating to Chinese Drywall construction defect litigation
- Employment
- Wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuit against one of the largest multinational electronics manufacturing companies in the world, based in China
- Hostile work environment, gender discrimination and retaliation claims brought against large law enforcement agency
- Employment class action on behalf of more than 1,000 sales representatives against a large electronics manufacturer alleging failure to timely pay commissions
- Employment wage and hour class actions and Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) claims brought by workers in health care, retail. restaurant, transportation, hospitality, automobile insurance, and manufacturing industries
- Employment cases involving issues of theft of trade secrets
- Employment cases involving whistleblower and retaliation claims
- Cases with claims of alleged labor code violations based on alleged employee misclassification
- Eminent Domain/Inverse Condemnation
- Eminent Domain cases involving goodwill and other damage claims by multiple businesses impacted by large transportation authority projects
- Claims by property owners of regulatory or other takings as a result of government action or inaction
- Entertainment & Sports
- Action brought by athlete, barred from competing in the Olympics due to “doping”, against manufacturer of nutritional supplements
- Action by and against prominent coach of sports organization involving allegations of improper conduct by coach toward female athletes, and alleging age discrimination by organization against coach
- Action against prominent non-profit organizer of annual race alleging improper release of private information of participants
- Environmental
- High profile environmental challenges relating to the approval of a project to redirect and pump subsurface water from the Mojave Desert involving issues of water rights
- Landslide litigation involving several homeowners against a public utility
- Inverse condemnation action following a major flood and significant property damage alleging that a city inadequately designed and maintained its storm drainage systems
- Estate/Probate/Trusts
- Trust litigation pertaining to substantial business interests and real estate holdings in Laguna Beach, consolidating probate and civil litigation including legal malpractice claims
- Trust litigation brought by widow in prominent family seeking to modify trust restrictions and recover damages
- Trust litigation seeking removal of trustee by siblings for self-dealing in operating trust assets
- Family Law
- Trials and hearings as assigned trial judge including discovery disputes
- Determination of parentage and rights of non-biological parents and grandparents
- Interpretation and determination of enforceability of pre-nuptial and marital settlement agreements
- Determination of Date of Separation
- Determination of spousal support, child support, and attorney’s fees
- Division of real and personal property including resolving issues of valuation, terms of selling the family home, and disbursement of proceeds
- Identification and allocation of community property and community debt
- Identification of separate property and reimbursement of separate property interests in the marital property
- Issues involving confidentiality of evaluations
- Matters involving the extensive use of expert testimony on issues of custody, property valuation (real and personal), accounting, and appraisals of businesses owned by a marital partner
- Value of spouse’s use of community property
- Adjudicated Move-away cases
- Adjudicated Third party interest in community property
- Adjudicated Business valuation and stock valuation issues
- Adjudicated palimony case
- Domestic partnership dissolution combined with marital dissolution involving division of a jointly ownded business plus real and personal property
- Health Care
- Reimbursement disputes
- Payor-provider disputes
- Fraud and abuse/kickback allegations
- Hospital-physician and physician-medical practice disputes
- Data breach and privacy disputes
- Insurance
- Complex insurance coverage action arising from an underlying environmental contamination lawsuit and consent agreement to remediate
- Insurance bad faith claims brought by the owner of a luxury yacht for failure to cover damages occurring in international waters
- Managed related multi-party cases seeking contribution and declaratory relief relating to the collapse of a large collective healthcare industry self-funded worker’s compensation program
- Proceedings by a prominent insurer seeking the return of $28 million in penalties paid under protest to the Insurance Commissioner in connection with rate proceedings
- Personal Injury/Torts
- Wrongful death resulting from a vehicle rollover, where plaintiff alleged improper manufacture and design of seatbelt
- Wrongful death of children struck and killed at school by driver who lost control of vehicle
- Wrongful death alleged to result from psychiatric malpractice
- Traumatic brain injury to minor in skateboarding accident
- Wrongful death resulting from loading dock injury
- Wrongful death relating to police pursuit
- Injuries to patients attributed to medical and dental procedures
- Sexual abuse claims against faith-based organization and schools
- High profile case involving allegations of conspiracy, invasion of privacy and other tort claims brought by politicians against police officer’s association and law firm
- Professional Liability/Attorneys Fees
- Adjudicated and mediated disputes regarding fee sharing between lawyers as well as attorney-client fee disputes
- Mediated disputes involving allegations of unconscionable or illegal fees and violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct
