Overview
Theresa has practiced business, real estate, and construction counseling and litigation for more than 25 years. She specializes in conventional and affordable housing counseling, administrative actions, and litigation, as well as in commercial construction counseling and litigation and complex business litigation, including consumer class action defense, issues arising from claims of unfair competition, unfair business practices, interference with contract and other business torts, and breach of fiduciary duty.
Theresa assists her affordable housing clients in achieving their business goals by successfully guiding them through the evolving, increasingly complex regulatory environment and its programs. This work includes counseling and training on fair housing, reasonable accommodations, and Violence Against Women Act compliance, and litigating complex commercial and residential landlord/tenant actions. Through her guidance, property owners, management companies, large developers, and non-profits of all sizes can successfully navigate everything from rent stabilization and just cause ordinances to repayment and cash-for-keys agreements.
In the construction sphere, Theresa represents owners, developers, general contractors, and subcontractors in both private and public projects. She specializes in drafting and negotiating project contracts, counseling clients on how to resolve disputes during construction, and litigating breach of contract disputes, including cost overruns, extra work disputes, and delay claims. Theresa has represented construction clients on a wide array of projects, including multifamily apartment complexes, stadium construction, highway improvements, flood control channel construction, various Army Corps of Engineer projects, student housing construction, public school construction and improvements, and power plants of various types, including thermal energy plants, hospitality construction, major landscaping projects, and airport construction.
She counsels clients on every aspect of a construction project, including:
- Contract drafting/counseling
- Bid protests
- Change Order disputes
- Prevailing Wage compliance
- Delay claims (differing site conditions, defective plans and specifications, inefficiency, acceleration, suspension, impact, etc.)
- Construction defects
- Environmental/safety regulations and hazmat issues
- Preference contracting issues
- Mechanics’ liens, stop notices, bond claims, and prompt payment laws
Theresa also served as a pro bono volunteer attorney for the Public Law Center of Orange County for more than a decade, representing family law litigants in dissolution, separation, paternity, and related matters, and continues that family law practice today in addition to her other practice areas.
Theresa has extensive experience in both state and federal courts throughout the western U.S., including California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. She has dealt with all aspects of litigation from inception through appeal.
Credentials
Education
- University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 1999 (J.D.)
- University of California, Los Angeles, 1995 (B.A.)
Court Admissions
- All California State Courts
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Project Angel Food
- Operation Gratitude
- Los Angeles Business Journal, Women of Influence: Attorneys, 2025
- Los Angeles Times, Legal Visionaries, 2024
- Super Lawyers, Rising Stars, 2009
- UCLA Latino Alumni Association, Scholarship Committee, Chair, 2023-2024
- Los Angeles County Bar, Judicial Appointments Committee
- Associated General Contractors of California, Legal Advisory Committee
- Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County, Board Member, 2009-2010
- Alumni Speaker, Alumni and Student Annual UCLA Pre-Law Litigation Society, May 2025
- “How and When to Serve Legal Notices for Multifamily Affordable Housing,” AHMA-PSW, LAX Marriott, May 2025
- “How and When to Serve Legal Notices for Multifamily Affordable Housing,” Webinar, Greystar, May 2025
- “2025 New Housing Laws Update,” Webinar, Greystar, February 2025
- “How and When to Serve Legal Notices for Multifamily Affordable Housing,” Solari Annual Meeting, LA Marriott, January 2025
- “California Fair Housing – Reasonable Accommodations,” Webinar, A Community of Friends, December 2024
- “Marijuana and Smoking Policies,” Webinar, Greystar, August 2024
- “Pet Deposit, Animal Policies, and Fair Housing Concerns,” Webinar, Greystar, March 2024
- “Effective Handling of Criminal Activity in Multifamily Housing,” Webinar, Greystar, November 2023
- “What’s New In Affordable Housing – Legal Perspective,” HumanGood 2023 Focus & Lead Conference, October 2023
- “California Abandonment Laws,” Webinar, Greystar, August 2023
- “California Domestic Violence Laws and VAWA,” Webinar, Greystar, June 2023
- “COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act and Local Moratorium,” Webinar, Thomas Safran & Associates, Inc., November 2020
- “Service and Accommodation Animals,” AHMA-PSW Spring Conference, LAX Marriott, May 2019
- “California Contractors’ Lien and Bond Claims,” Provisors, Westside III, January 2017
- “Avoiding Fair Housing Pitfalls,” California Association of Realtors, September 2016
- “The At-Risk Construction Manager,” Legal Advisory Committee, AGC of California, May 2006