Edith R. Matthai
Edith R. Matthai is a mediator, arbitrator, neutral evaluator, and discovery referee with more than 45 years of experience resolving complex, high-profile, and emotionally charged disputes. Recognized for her fairness, insight, and steady demeanor, she brings a deep understanding of litigation strategy and human dynamics to every matter she handles.
Ms. Matthai has been retained as a neutral in a wide array of disputes including professional liability matters, attorney fee disputes and divisions, complex business cases, partnership dissolutions, real estate matters, and insurance coverage and bad faith claims. Her ability to quickly grasp intricate legal and financial issues allows her to guide parties toward realistic, durable resolutions. Ms. Matthai has also litigated and resolved numerous cases involving legal and accounting malpractice, commercial contracts, real estate disputes coverage disputes and product liability claims. This broad exposure enables her to identify the key legal and factual issues that drive the conflicts and find paths toward resolution even in multi-faceted disputes.
A significant portion of Ms. Matthai’s career has been devoted to professional liability matters. While in practice, she represented hundreds of attorneys and law firms—from solo practitioners to AmLaw 100 firms—in malpractice and related claims. That experience honed her ability to evaluate both the assertions that the standard of care had been breached and the merits of the “case within a case,” giving her rare insight into the interplay between the underlying litigation or transaction and the standards for professional responsibility. Her work in professional liability also exposed her to a wide variety of subjects, including complex business transactions, Ponzi schemes, tax structures, securities claims and fraud allegations. Her experience supports her ability to navigate challenging and often sensitive matters that demand creativity, strategic thinking, and discretion.
Throughout her distinguished legal career, Ms. Matthai has represented clients in hundreds of mediations and helped settle well over 1,000 cases. Her background as a seasoned trial lawyer and respected leader in the legal community informs her practical, disciplined, and empathetic approach as a neutral. In addition to her extensive civil practice, Ms. Matthai represented more than 300 judicial officers before the California Commission on Judicial Performance. This work provided her with valuable insight into judicial perspectives and decision-making—experience that now informs her measured and balanced approach as a neutral.
Ms. Matthai’s approach to mediation is grounded in flexibility and fairness. She believes every case, client, and counsel is unique, and adapts her style accordingly - balancing empathy and efficiency while creating space where each participant feels heard. She is unafraid to ask difficult questions, challenge assumptions, and push for practical solutions.
As a neutral evaluator, Ms. Matthai has the ability to assess cases both early in litigation and shortly before trial. Her ability to analyze complex records, evaluate risk, and anticipate trial outcomes makes her an invaluable resource for parties seeking a reality check or pretrial guidance.
In her role as a discovery referee, Ms. Matthai is skilled at cutting through procedural noise to identify the information necessary for fair and efficient case development. She takes a practical approach to discovery disputes, emphasizing clarity, proportionality, and problem-solving over formality. Because of her long experience representing attorneys and law firms, she has particular expertise on issues relating to attorney-client privilege, mediation confidentiality, and other discovery limitations. This knowledge allows her to manage disputes involving sensitive materials with care and precision.
Ms. Matthai is respected for her ability to resolve matters in which previous mediators were unsuccessful. Her preparation, persistence, and ability to read the motivations of the parties enable her to break through impasses and help litigants reach closure. Her understanding of insurance and the impact of coverage issues on the potential for settlement benefits parties that are navigating coverage concerns. She appreciates the complex relationships among insureds, insurers, and counsel, and works with each of them to realistically assess the risks of litigation, including the economic and emotional costs of continued litigation.
Her service on the California Civil Jury Instructions (CACI) Committee, from its inception until her appointment to the Judicial Council, deepened her understanding of the law and the art of clear communication. She often describes this experience as a “postgraduate legal education” in articulating complex legal principles in plain, accessible language—an ability that benefits the parties she now serves.
Beyond her ADR work, Ms. Matthai serves on the Board of Directors of American Business Bank, a four billion dollar relationship-based bank serving small and mid-sized companies across Southern California. This role complements her understanding of business realities and the commercial context that underlies many of the disputes she helps to resolve.
Representative Matters
- Appellate
- Representation of multiple lawyers and law firms on appeals in malpractice actions and fee disputes
- Representation of clients in multiple appeals arising from anti-SLAPP motions, including the seminal Jarrow Formulas case, in which the California Supreme Court established that malicious prosecution actions are subject to an anti-SLAPP motion
- Business Commercial
- Trial counsel in an action between a small business and a major manufacturer concerning fulfillment of supply orders
- Co-trial counsel in a case between a university and a famous actor over the ownership of a notable work of art
- Co-trial counsel in an action between a national restaurant chain and a franchisor, with the restaurant chain claiming more than $120 million for alleged defalcations of the franchisor and the franchisor claiming $30 million it paid as a guarantor on a loan; action involved complex accounting and valuation issues
- Trial counsel in a matter involving a national shopping mall owner who allegedly caused millions in lost sales to a restaurant by various purportedly wrongful acts, including the removal of the restaurant’s sign
- Entertainment & Sports
- Lead counsel in a dispute over rights to 5% contingency fee specified in retainer agreements with talent
- Lead counsel in a malpractice action arising from a dispute between a studio executive and his former employer over the rights to multiple films, as well as alleged conflicts of interest by counsel, who purportedly represented both parties in negotiating a severance agreement
- Lead counsel in the arbitration of a malpractice action arising out of a dispute between two previously related film companies over the rights to multiple films and residual payments, assertions of mismanagement and theft, and conflicts over the accounting of the profits from the films
- Estate Probate Trusts
- Representation in multiple matters in which it was alleged that an attorney did not accurately set forth the intent of the decedent in the testamentary documents
- Representation of attorneys alleged to have improperly advised the client to contest the testamentary disposition in the face of a no contest clause
- Representation of attorneys alleged to have improperly represented trustees regarding the management or disposition of probate assets, the trustee’s handling of probate litigation and other claims generated by bitter disputes among heirs to the estates
- Family Law
- Representation of counsel in multiple actions arising from high-asset dissolution cases, requiring litigation of the validity of the underlying rulings on asset valuation and distribution, claims of breached fiduciary duties, disputes over premarital agreements and support orders, and litigation over millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees
- Representation of numerous bench officers who allegedly violated a party’s rights in a family law matter, which required evaluation of the merits of the rulings and an explanation of the cases and the rulings in the response to the Commission on Judicial Performance
- Insurance
- Trial of bad faith action alleging failure to settle within $15,000 policy limits with an underlying judgment of $23 million
- Representation of a firm alleged to be responsible for the failure of a corporate client to tender to an excess carrier before the appeal of an approximately $20 million judgment, which was just barely within the primary limits but exceeded those limits during the appeal
- Representation of a firm that mishandled the coverage litigation arising from the condemnation of a 12-building apartment complex, requiring litigation of the underlying complex coverage disputes
- Representation of multiple firms on allegations that their carriers had a right to rescind coverage because the firm had prior notice of a potential claim
- Product Liability
- Trial counsel in a federal court action against a manufacturer by an employer seeking the monies paid to their employee who was scalped and rendered a quadriplegic when his long hair became entangled in the rotating shaft of a copper extrusion machine
- Trial counsel in an action for the wrongful death of two workmen when a compressor, which had been rebuilt, exploded
- Trial counsel in action alleging that air conditioning equipment was the cause of a fire that destroyed a retail store
- Professional Liability
- Lead counsel in several matters in which lawyers were alleged to have aided and abetted Ponzi schemes or other fraudulent conduct
- Lead counsel in legal malpractice claims for liabilities resulting from the IRS disallowance of tax structures entered into by the clients
- Trial and appellate counsel in matter in which counsel allegedly mishandled the defense of multiple cases arising from escrow fraud, including claims that the client was wrongfully exposed to liability in excess of the insurance coverage
- Lead counsel regarding claims that counsel improperly handled construction defect claims resulting in the client’s inability to repair a leaking reservoir
- Lead counsel concerning claims that counsel improperly handled the trial of disputes over the patents for certain genetic testing
- Lead trial counsel and arbitration of several claims alleging that properties or profits should be forfeited because of a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct governing business relationships with clients
- Multiple matters in which a law firm or lawyer was alleged to be responsible for improper conduct of a lawyer with the firm
- Real Property
- Trial and appellate counsel in a bitter, long-running neighbor dispute over easement rights for a significant portion of the client’s yard
- Trial and appellate counsel in a dispute between clients and their attorney arising from litigation over the validity of a 100-year lease entered in 1922 with the rental rate tied to the price of gold
- Representation of counsel in action alleging improper structure of an extraordinarily complex transaction for a multi-acre, multi-use real estate development, allegedly causing the loss of amounts owed on the financing and the development rights
Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities
- American Board of Trial Advocates
- President, Los Angeles Chapter, 2008
- Executive Committee, 2000–present)
- Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Member, Board of Trustees, 1998–2000
- President, 2005
- American Bar Association
- Member, Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, 2010–2014
- ABA Standing Committee Lawyers Professional Liability Committee
- Chair, 2007–2010
- Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
- Complex Litigation Committee, 2018–2023)
- Ethics Committee, 2018–2022); Chair, 2020–2021
- Association of Southern California Defense Council
- President, 2001
- Chancery Club
- President, 2015
- Judicial Council of California, 2010–2013
- Policy Coordination and Liaison Committee, 2010–2011
- Executive & Planning Committee, 2011–2013
- Policy Coordination and Liaison Committee, 2010–2011
- California Commission for the Revision of the Rules of Professional Conduct
- Advisory Member, 2015–2017
- Judicial Council Task Force on Jury Instructions, The CACI Committee, 1996–2010
- Association of Southern California Defense Counsel
- President, 2001
- California Defense Counsel
- President, 2004
HONORS
- Jim Robie Professionalism and Civility Award, Los Angeles County Bar Association, 2024
- Lee B. Wenzel Civility Award, Los Angeles ABOTA, 2024
- Top 100 Lawyers in California, Daily Journal, 2006, 2007, 2022, 2023
- Hall of Fame Award, Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, 2015
- Shattuck-Price Outstanding Lawyer Award, LACBA, 2014
- Trial Lawyer of the Year, CAL-ABOTA, 2013
- Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Ernestine Stahlhut Award, 2010
- Champion of Justice Award, Loyola Law School, 2008
- Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, California State Bar Litigation Section, 2008
- Top Professional Liability Lawyers, Daily Journal, 2022
- Top 100 in Southern California, Super Lawyers, 2007–2022
Background and Education
- J.D., University of California, Hastings College of Law, 1975
- B.A., cum laude, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1971
- Law Offices of Robert Lieff, 1975–1976
- Cummins, White & Breidenbach, 1976–1978
- Breidenbach, Swainston, Yokaitis & Crispo, 1978–1986
- Robie & Mathai, APC, 1987–2023
Home Office
HOME OFFICE
Los Angeles, California
515 S. Flower St, Suite 4500 Los Angeles, CA, 90071
Inland Empire, California
Citrus Towers, 3390 University Ave., Suite 450, Riverside, CA 92501
Orange County, California
5 Park Plaza, Suite 400, Irvine, CA 92614
San Diego, California
401 B Street, Suite 2100, San Diego, CA 92101
Available to Travel
AVAILABLE TO TRAVEL
Century City, California
1925 Century Park East, 14th Floor, The Watt Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90067
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