Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP attorney Deborah Chang was honored by the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) Women’s Caucus as the Woman Consumer Advocate of the Year at the CAOC’s 56th Annual Convention in San Francisco. The award was given to Ms. Chang in recognition of her outstanding commitment to furthering the education and careers of women trial attorneys.
When she’s not in the courtroom seeking justice for her clients, Ms. Chang is often at the dais, speaking at various legal events across the country including the Consumer Attorney Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada and the Women Trial Skills Conference in Marina del Rey, California. In May 2017, Ms. Chang co-chaired the Daily Journal’s “Women Leadership in Law” inaugural event that brought some of the greatest law firm and in-house practitioners together to participate in insightful discussions on recent topics important to the legal profession and of interest to women leaders.
In 2017, Ms. Chang was named by the Daily Journal among the Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California, the Top 100 Lawyers in California as well as one of the Top Woman Lawyers in California, the latter a distinction she also received in 2016. She is listed in Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers for Southern California.
Ms. Chang is the recipient of the 2014 Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) Consumer Attorney of the Year Award, and was a finalist for the award in 2017, 2016 and 2012. She was on trial teams that obtained the two largest wrongful death verdicts in California in 2014 and four of the top 25 verdicts in California in both 2014 and 2015 – including the largest verdicts received in North County, San Diego (Vista) and Imperial County (El Centro).
She is a member of the Los Angeles chapter of ABOTA, where she serves on the Executive Committee and is a National Board Member. Ms. Chang also serves on the Executive Committee and as a Board Member of the CAOC, and is currently the Third Vice-President and Education Chair for 2017.
The mission of the Consumer Attorneys of California’s Women’s Caucus is to inspire, inform, and engage women members and to provide a gateway to leadership within CAOC and the bar generally. The Caucus organizes networking events and activities in all of the categories CAOC promotes, including political development, legislative lobbying, membership development, education, and community service. Last year, the Women’s Caucus raised funds, recruited almost 100 members for CAOC, organized community service days, sponsored networking events, and helped the Convention education effort.