PROFILE
Allan J. Favish practices general civil litigation, including appeals, for plaintiffs and defendants. Mr. Favish has argued cases before the United States Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. His broad practice includes insurance coverage, insurance bad faith, breach of contract, medical malpractice, sexual harassment, general tort litigation, the United States Freedom of Information Act and the California Public Records Act cases. He has handled cutting edge cases of considerable public interest.
Mr. Favish was the first person to sue the Regents of the University of California to gain release of raw law and medical school admissions data. Thereafter, he was the first person to sue the Regents alleging that it engages in false advertising when it tells potential law and medical school applicants that UC does not discriminate on the basis of race in admissions.
Mr. Favish litigated a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Kenneth Starr’s Office of Independent Counsel to obtain public release of photographs of the deceased body of President Bill Clinton’s Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster, as it laid in Virginia’s Fort Marcy Park.
Mr. Favish obtained a jury verdict for intentional infliction of emotional distress, sexual battery, monetary fraud and punitive damages on behalf of an underage boy enticed into sexual conduct by an adult male.
Mr. Favish is the original author of California Evidence Code § 1370 (1996) (new exception to hearsay rule, AB 2068, introduced by Assemblyman Bernie Richter). Mr. Favish testified before the California Legislature to help get the bill passed.
EDUCATION
- J.D., University of California, Hastings College of Law (now renamed University of California College of the Law, San Francisco), 1981
- B.A., University of California at Los Angeles, 1977
LEGAL PUBLICATIONS
- “From Bakke, to the Regents’ Vote, to the California Civil Rights Initiative and Hopwood,” 27 U. West L.A. L. Rev. 353 (1996) (read PDF)
- Note, “Radiation Injury and the Atomic Veteran: Shifting the Burden of Proof on Factual Causation,” 32 Hast. L.J. 933 (1981) (read PDF)
COUNSEL OF RECORD IN CASES WITH PUBLISHED COURT OPINIONS
- Kelton Arms Condo. Owners Ass’n v. Homestead Ins. Co., 346 F. 3d 1190 (9th Cir. 2003)
- Favish v. Office of Independent Counsel, 217 F. 3d 1168 (9th Cir. 2000) (FOIA for original Polaroid photos of Vincent Foster’s body in Fort Marcy Park; 2-1 opinion stated: “Favish, in fact, tenders evidence and argument which, if believed, would justify his doubts” about the government’s conclusion), rev’d., National Archives and Records Administration v. Favish, 541 U.S. 157 (2004) (formerly Office of Indep. Counsel v. Favish), rehrg. den., 124 S. Ct. 2198, 158 L. Ed. 2d 758 (2004).
- Favish v. Regents of the University of California, 46 Cal. App. 4th 49, 53 Cal. Rptr. 2d 757 (1996) (depublished by Cal. Supreme Court, August 14, 1996)
- Congleton v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., 189 Cal. App. 3d 51, 234 Cal. Rptr. 218 (1987) (with Kern & Wooley, Los Angeles)
- Culbertson v. Louisville Ladder Co., 190 Cal. App. 3d 704, 235 Cal. Rptr. 510 (1987) (with Kern & Wooley, Los Angeles)
- Penner v. Falk, 153 Cal. App. 3d 858, 200 Cal. Rptr. 661 (1984)
- Nevin v. United States, 696 F. 2d 1229 (9th Cir. 1983)
- Targett v. United States, 551 F. Supp. 1231 (N.D. Cal. 1982)