After graduating from the UCLA School of Law and State Bar admission, in 1983, Victoria Townsend worked as an associate in the Law Offices of Al Schallau in Los Angeles, doing plaintiff's products liability work. When Mr. Schallau moved his practice to Rancho Palos Verdes, Ms. Townsend joined the West Los Angeles firm of Schlothauer and Ellison as an associate, where she worked from 1984 - 1986, handling both plaintiff and defense personal injury work in addition to plaintiff's products liability work.

In 1986, Ms. Townsend joined the West Los Angeles office of Berger, Kahn, Shafton & Moss as an associate, where she concentrated on insurance defense work, primary first and third party motor vehicle and other personal injury work and the defense of homeowners associations. It was at Berger, Kahn, et al. that Ms. Townsend first became involved in the investigation and defense of suspect claims and the education of claims personnel on that topic. Ms. Townsend became a junior partner in the firm in 1988, when the firm became Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon & Gladstone, and moved to San Diego to open and co-manage the firm's branch office there.

In 1994, Ms. Townsend relocated to Los Angeles County to join the Glendale staff counsel office of the California State Automobile Association Inter-Insurance Bureau, where she continued to defend first and third party motor vehicle, property damage and other personal injury cases, and some subrogation recovery, as well. When the Glendale office closed in 1999, Ms. Townsend transferred to the staff counsel office of CSAA's San Francisco Main Office, which became the Law Offices of MacMorris & Carbone, where she specialized primarily in the defense of fraudulent and suspect claims.

Ms. Townsend remained with MacMorris & Carbone until 2005, when her position was eliminated in a series of company-wide lay-offs. After a brief period as an associate with the San Francisco office of Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker in the same year, Ms. Townsend left that firm to establish her own practice. From 2005 to 2007, Ms. Townsend taught horseback riding and was the assistant barn manager at two small Arabian horse ranches in Contra Costa County, and consulted in matters of equine safety and liability.

Ms. Townsend joined the firm of McDowell, Meshot & Shaw in 2007, where she brings her experience to bear in the areas of first and third party personal injury cases, suspect claims and equine safety and liability. Ms. Townsend is licensed to practice in California, in the United States District Courts for the Central and Southern Districts of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and is certified as a Level Two English Flat and Western Riding Instructor through the Certified Horsemanship Association, a leading national equine safety organization. Ms. Townsend has tried numerous bench and jury trials, and has arbitrated hundreds of cases in contractual and judicial arbitrations and taken and defended over one thousand depositions and many examinations under oath.

Practices
Civil Litigation and Trials
First Party SIU Investigations
Examinations Under Oath

Education
Antioch College, B.A., 1980
UCLA School of Law, J.D., 1983

Walnut Creek Office

email:vtownsend@mcdowelllaw.com

© 2006 McDowell, Meshot & Shaw