Huntington, Jay F.

Mr. Sipprelle represents clients in the areas of employment litigation and counseling, high-exposure products liability and personal injury litigation, and commercial litigation. Mr. Sipprelle has over 22 years of experience practicing law and was named a Southern California Super Lawyer in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. He is a highly successful trial attorney who obtained a record-breaking $45 million judgment for a Ventura County client.

Employment Litigation and Counseling

Mr. Sipprelle serves as counsel in all types of employment litigation matters in state and federal courts and before regulatory agencies, including lawsuits involving alleged wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination and retaliation, class action wage and hour disputes, unfair labor practice claims before the National Labor Relations Board, discrimination charges before the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing, and wage claims before the California Labor Commissioner. Mr. Sipprelle also regularly provides labor and employment advice and counsel to his clients at the pre-litigation stage.

Products Liability and Other Personal Injury Litigation

Mr. Sipprelle has represented major automobile manufacturers in the defense of products liability claims involving catastrophic injuries, including burn, spinal, and brain injuries. He previously represented an international consumer products designer and distributor in product liability matters involving catastrophic burn injuries. In addition, Mr. Sipprelle handles numerous personal injury cases outside the products liability context, including through trial.

Commercial Litigation

Mr. Sipprelle represents clients in a wide variety of commercial disputes through trial and appeal, including disputes involving professional negligence, real property, construction defect, and lender liability.

Trial Work

Mr. Sipprelle has served as lead counsel in numerous jury trials, bench trials, and binding arbitrations in the areas of employment discrimination, retaliation, personal injury and wrongful death, real property disputes, and lender liability. Over the past several years, Mr. Sipprelle has obtained multiple favorable verdicts for clients, including in the following matters:

• Wrongful termination and sexual orientation discrimination action: three week jury trial in the Orange County Superior Court that resulted in a favorable verdict.
• Race discrimination lawsuit: two-week jury trial in the Los Angeles County Superior Court; the case was favorably resolved during jury deliberations
• Wrongful death action: three-week jury trial in the San Diego County Superior Court that resulted in a favorable verdict.
• Race and religious discrimination lawsuit: two-week jury trial in the Los Angeles County Superior Court that resulted in a favorable verdict.

Mr. Sipprelle also tried a number of criminal cases to jury verdicts on behalf of the Los Angeles City Attorney's office early in his career.

In 2002, Mr. Sipprelle obtained a record-breaking $45 million wrongful death judgment in favor of his client, Dr. Xavier Caro, against Dr. Caro's ex-wife, Socorro Caro. The $45 million judgment was reported to be the largest civil judgment in the history of Ventura County up to that time. The case arose out of Ms. Caro's highly publicized murder of three of the couple's four children.

Personal History

As the son and grandson of United States Foreign Service officers, Mr. Sipprelle spent much of his childhood living in foreign countries, including Colombia, Sweden, Turkey, Venezuela, Austria, and the Dominican Republic. He reads and speaks Spanish.