SPECIAL TRIBUTE
Panish Shea & Boyle, LLP
neering involved in the product and
would be genuinely surprised when
it turned out that I knew as much, if
not more, than them.”
Much of Chang’s success in the
products liability arena comes from
her relentless pursuit of the facts
and her insistence on leaving no
stone unturned. But these kinds of
cases can begin to take a toll.
Deborah Chang
It should come as no surprise that
Panish, Shea & Boyle is routinely
named one of Southern California’s best law firms. After all, it has
some of the best and the brightest
working for them. Case in point:
Deborah Chang, a trial attorney
who has been at the forefront of
the products liability arena for more
than twenty years – a notoriously
male-dominated area of law.
“When I first began practicing law,
there were far less women – especially in products liability cases. I
often found myself to be the only
woman in a room at a deposition,
meeting, hearing, or inspection,”
Chang said. “I distinctly remember
being asked by groups of male
attorneys to go to the local strip
clubs after depositions; I was
asked to go hunting with the guys
on more than one occasion; and
often, I was mistaken as a court
reporter or secretary. I used being
a woman to my advantage. Many
times my male counterparts
thought I would have no understanding of the science or engi-
“Our cases are often very emotional and involve unimaginable personal tragedies,” Chang said. “In
order to stay grounded, we have to
force ourselves to remember that
we cannot do our job by getting too
emotionally invested or involved
that we end up missing the perspective our clients desperately
need. Having a sense of humor is
essential and being able to see the
bright side in every situation
helps.”
Oftentimes the “bright side” emerges at the end of a case when
Chang has accomplished the
seemingly impossible, like when
she brought the first civil rights
class action on behalf of prisoners
with AIDS in a maximum security
prison. The landmark settlement
resulted in the formulation of model
policies and procedures relating to
the housing, programming, and
medical treatment of prisoners with
AIDS currently used in prisons
throughout the country. In 1996,
Chang also brought the first lawsuit
in the country based on the newly
enacted Violence Against Women
Act of 1994. As part of the lawsuit,
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she successfully argued for the
upholding of the constitutionality of
the statute and after reaching a
settlement in the case, she lectured extensively on gendermotivated violence. The United
States Supreme Court eventually
ruled that the civil remedy portio