Agnes Sullivan
- Partner | Trial Attorney
Agnès Sullivan
Seasoned Litigator. Strategic Advocate. Proven in High-Stakes Disputes.
For more than two decades, Agnès Sullivan has represented individuals and businesses in sophisticated, high-stakes litigation throughout California. A graduate of UCLA and Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Agnès has built her career handling complex disputes in state and federal courts, arbitration proceedings, and jury trials.
Experience & Litigation Background
Experience Across Complex Litigation Matters
Her experience spans employment, landlord-tenant, real estate, business, commercial, healthcare, trade-secret, unfair competition, and other complex civil litigation.
She has represented employees and employers, landlords and tenants, plaintiffs and defendants, corporate officers and shareholders, small and midsized businesses, major corporations, and Fortune 500 companies.
Practice Areas:
- Employment Litigation
- Landlord-Tenant & Real Estate Litigation
- Business & Commercial Litigation
- Healthcare Litigation
- Trade Secret & Unfair Competition
- Complex Civil Litigation
Experience & Litigation Background
That breadth of experience gives Agnès a distinct strategic perspective. She understands how cases are evaluated from both sides, how opposing counsel is likely to approach a dispute, where vulnerabilities may develop, and what evidence can change the course of litigation.
She uses that insight to anticipate challenges early, assess risk realistically, and build a deliberate strategy around each client’s objectives
- Strategic Perspective
- Risk Assessment
- Case Preparation
Selected Litigation Experience
Throughout her career, Agnès has handled significant matters in state court, federal court, arbitration, and jury trials. Her experience has included:
- Obtaining a favorable jury verdict for a professional medical corporation in trade-secret litigation against a large Southern California healthcare company.
- Defending an employment agency in a high-profile federal class-action jury trial and obtaining a favorable verdict for her client on the claim at issue.
- Representing a former managing partner in a partnership arbitration against a Southern California architecture firm and obtaining a judgment for her client.
- Obtaining complete dismissals of claims in numerous arbitrations brought by former employees asserting wage-and-hour violations against a national Fortune 500 retailer.
- Representing an international real estate franchisor in trademark-infringement actions involving competitors and former franchisees.
- Achieving a favorable resolution for an international company in litigation involving disability discrimination and failure-to-accommodate allegations.
- Successfully representing healthcare organizations in disputes involving unfair competition, trade secrets, reimbursement, and other business matters.
These results reflect the breadth of Agnès’s experience and her ability to handle litigation where the factual, legal, financial, and reputational stakes are substantial.
Employment Litigation — Plaintiff & Defense
Agnès has substantial experience representing both employees and employers in workplace disputes, including single-plaintiff and class-action litigation.
Her experience includes matters involving wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, disability accommodation, wage-and-hour claims, and other employment-related disputes.
Having represented both sides provides Agnès with an important strategic advantage. She understands how an employee’s case is developed and valued, as well as how employers and their counsel investigate, defend, and attempt to defeat those claims.
That perspective enables her to identify vulnerabilities early, recognize the evidence that can materially affect a case, and anticipate how the opposition is likely to respond.
Her prior representations include defending employers in significant employment litigation and arbitration proceedings, achieving favorable results in discrimination matters, and obtaining complete dismissals in numerous wage-and-hour arbitrations involving a national Fortune 500 retailer.
For employers, Agnès understands the operational, financial, and reputational consequences employment litigation can create.
For employees, she understands the importance of developing the evidence necessary to establish what occurred and the resulting harm.
Regardless of which side she represents, her approach is consistent: understand the evidence, assess the risk, anticipate the opposition, and pursue a strategy tailored to the client’s objectives.
Landlord-Tenant, Property & Real Estate Litigation
Agnès represents landlords, tenants, property owners, investors, and businesses in landlord-tenant, real estate, and property-related disputes.
She understands that these cases can affect far more than the property itself. They may threaten a person’s home, income stream, investment, business operations, or financial security.
Whether protecting a property owner’s interests or advancing a tenant’s claims, Agnès approaches each matter as a litigator. She examines the history of the relationship, the documentary and testimonial evidence, the governing law, the procedural posture of the case, and the client’s ultimate objective before determining how the matter should be pursued.
Her experience representing parties on both sides of disputes gives her valuable insight into the arguments, defenses, and litigation strategies that may be employed by the opposition.
Her representation is tailored to the facts and objectives of the particular dispute, not a predetermined playbook.
Complex Civil & Business Litigation
Agnès has extensive experience handling sophisticated civil and commercial disputes involving businesses, executives, shareholders, healthcare organizations, professional practices, partnerships, contracts, trade secrets, intellectual property, unfair competition, and other complex claims.
Her experience includes representing individuals, corporate officers, shareholders, small and midsized businesses, professional organizations, major corporations, governmental entities, and Fortune 500 companies.
She has litigated contractual disputes, partnership controversies, trademark and intellectual-property matters, trade-secret misappropriation, unfair competition claims, healthcare business disputes, and other complex commercial matters.
That background gives Agnès a sophisticated understanding of how businesses assess litigation risk, evaluate settlement, protect confidential and proprietary interests, and make difficult decisions when substantial financial or commercial interests are at stake.
Strategy That Begins With the Result in Mind
Agnès begins every engagement by identifying what is truly at stake for her client and what must be done to protect it.
Rather than simply reacting to deadlines, discovery, and motions, she develops a litigation strategy around the client’s ultimate objective. She identifies the facts and evidence that are likely to matter most, evaluates weaknesses candidly, anticipates opposing arguments, and positions the case for negotiation, motion practice, mediation, arbitration, or trial.
Her experience extends through every phase of litigation, from initial case evaluation and investigation through pleadings, discovery, depositions, dispositive motions, mediation, arbitration, trial preparation, trial, and resolution.
Agnès believes clients deserve more than a lawyer who simply tells them what they want to hear. They deserve a counselor who will assess the case realistically, explain the risks, identify the opportunities, and make recommendations based on what will best protect their interests.
When difficult decisions arise, she provides clear and candid advice. When litigation is necessary, she is prepared to pursue her client’s position with determination.
Recognition & Professional Background
Agnès earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she studied Political Science and German, before earning her Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2005 and is also admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Agnès was selected to the Southern California Rising Stars list by Super Lawyers for five consecutive years, from 2014 through 2018.
She was also recognized as a “Top Attorney” by Pasadena Magazine, with that recognition beginning in 2010.
Agnès has served in a leadership capacity within the legal community, including as Chair of the Newsletter/Publications Committee of the Iranian American Lawyers Association.
She speaks Armenian, Farsi, and German.
Experience From Both Sides. Strategy Focused on Your Side.
gnès has represented employees and employers. Landlords and tenants. Individuals and corporations. Plaintiffs and defendants.
That experience matters.
Understanding how the other side thinks can be just as important as understanding your own case. Agnès draws on more than two decades of litigation experience to anticipate arguments, identify vulnerabilities, evaluate risk, and develop strategies based on the particular facts and objectives of each client.
At Goodman Sullivan Law Group, Inc., she brings that experience to clients confronting disputes that can affect their businesses, careers, properties, finances, and reputations.
Agnès believes effective advocacy requires more than knowing the law. It requires preparation, judgment, persistence, strategic discipline, and the willingness to take a case as far as necessary to protect a client’s interests.
When the stakes are high, Agnès is prepared to fight for what matters.
Speak With Agnès Sullivan Today
When the stakes are high, you need an attorney who understands the facts, anticipates challenges, and develops a strategy focused on protecting your interests.
Contact Goodman Sullivan Law Group, Inc. to discuss your legal matter and learn how Agnès Sullivan’s experience and strategic approach can help you move forward.
