Bio

Spencer P. Hugret is a partner in Gordon & Rees’ San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Mr Hugret is chair of the firm's Automotive Litigation & Autonomous Vehicles practice group and is the co-chair of the San Francisco Tort and Product Liability practice group. He is also a member of the firm’s Aviation, Commercial Litigation, Securities Litigation, and Business Transactions Practice Groups. His multifaceted practice focuses on complex litigation involving products liability in a number of industries, including the automotive industry, aviation accidents, commercial litigation, securities litigation, antitrust litigation, consumer warranty and consumer fraud-based litigation. In such litigation matters, Mr. Hugret’s experience relates to not only the handling of such claims, but also trial to verdict in complex products liability matters, mass torts, class actions, multi-district litigation, business torts, unfair competition, “bet the company” litigation, consumer litigation, and breach of fiduciary duty claims. Mr. Hugret also regularly handles punitive damages matters and other high exposure claims. Further, as national coordinating counsel for an international consumer durable goods manufacturer, he has represented clients throughout the country and has been admitted to numerous jurisdictions pro hac vice. Mr. Hugret is also regional trial counsel for two of the "Big Three" automotive manufacturers. In the automotive industry, specifically, Mr. Hugret has extensive experience in litigation arising out of numerous injury claims stemming from alleged failure of vehicle safety systems, such as airbag litigation, seatbelt litigation, in addition to experience related to seatback performance, roll overs, roof crush, vehicle dynamics, vehicle fires, crashworthiness and breach of warranty litigation. Mr. Hugret is also a strategic business partner, assisting his clients with not only litigation matters, but also business operations, corporate strategy, and strategic integration of operations. Towards that end, Mr. Hugret frequently assists clients with implementation of new or evolving strategic initiatives, operations and overall strategy to help businesses grow and adapt in the ever changing legal landscape. Mr. Hugret's clients include numerous Fortune 100 companies in industries such as automotive, consumer products and aviation, as well as in the financial sector. Sitting first chair, Mr. Hugret has tried to verdict numerous complex and high stakes matters in various jurisdictions. His extensive experience includes not only lead trial counsel work, but also pretrial motions, discovery preparation, depositions, electronic discovery, mediations and expert witness discovery. Mr. Hugret has drafted and argued numerous successful dispositive motions on behalf of clients. In addition to his trial experience, he handles the collection, management, production and preservation of electronically stored information for clients engaged in high-stakes litigation, and he is skilled in using many e-discovery software platforms. Mr. Hugret has also represented clients in arbitration proceedings involving banking, financial and securities matters before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), formerly known as the National Association of Securities Dealers (“NASD”) arbitrations. Mr. Hugret also represents his clients in AAA arbitrations. In addition, he successfully handled an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit involving a large international banking corporation. Prior to becoming a partner at Gordon & Rees, Mr. Hugret served as one of the associate representatives to the partnership for both the Los Angeles and San Francisco offices. Every year since 2012, Southern California Super Lawyers magazine has recognized him as a Rising Star in aviation law and business litigation, a distinction awarded to only the top 2.5 percent of young lawyers in Southern California.