Elise M. Laughead

Biography

Elise M. Laughead was born and raised in San Diego, California. She graduated from San Diego State University in 2013 with a B.A. in Psychology, Summa Cum Laude, and earned her law degree in 2016 from California Western School of Law, Magna Cum Laude, graduating in the top 5% of her class, and joined the California Bar the same year.

Elise's academic record is distinguished by a string of honors: she received American Jurisprudence Awards for the highest grade in her class in Trial Practice, Legal Skills, and Advanced Legal Writing and Analysis, and served as an Associate Editor of the California Western Law Review. She was also a member of the Student Bar Association's Board of Representatives, the Louis M. Welsh American Inn of Court, and the Pro Bono Honors Society, and completed judicial externships with the Honorable Anthony J. Battaglia of the United States District Court and the Honorable Joel R. Wohlfeil of the San Diego County Superior Court.

Elise's practice focuses on defending catastrophic personal-injury claims, with particular depth in construction-site accidents, premises liability, product liability, and trucking litigation. She has tried several cases to verdict across Southern California, from San Diego to Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. Her trial record includes a defense verdict in a six-week bifurcated liability trial involving a motorcyclist's leg amputation and a trucking company; a defense verdict for corporate co-defendants in a high-speed DUI rear-end collision case involving a traumatic brain injury claim, against a $20 million demand; and a defense verdict for Starbucks Corporation in a premises-liability suit over a shoulder injury. She also holds her firm's record for the fastest defense verdict ever returned by a jury — in under five minutes.

Outside the courtroom, Elise enjoys traveling, exploring new restaurants, spending time at the beach and the zoo, cheering on the Padres, and tracking down good Mexican food.