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GENERAL OVERVIEW
Mr. Gregory C. Pyfrom, Sr. was formerly a military dependent who has lived all over the world in such places as Morocco, Africa, various posts throughout Europe, all over the United States with his last two and one-half high school years were spent in a foreign exchange program in Japan. Since returning to Southern California in 1965, he has paid his own way through college and law school by working in the construction industry by assisting in the building of single-family homes, apartments, commercial properties, and special projects such as the design and manufacturing of the “air scoops molds” for the 1967/68 Ford Shelby Mustang through Chuck Weber Construction. In 1969, he graduated from CSUN and continued in the construction industry and law school by working with Andruss & Associates constructing celebrity homes in Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, and Brentwood, California.
In June 1976, he passed the California Bar exam and was immediately retained by Carlstroem, Sanford and Siegel, Liberty Mutual’s house counsel. With his experience in both construction and real estate along with his experience as a real estate agent, he was assigned to the real estate/ construction section. In two years, he had tried 11 cases and more than 20 voluntary arbitrations. Soon thereafter he was retained by the Insurance Company of North America (INA) to manage their construction/real estate matters having just completed his 2nd year of practicing law. During this period, he also became a licensed California Broker. Less than two years later, he was retained by outside defense counsel in Santa Monica. One year later in 1981, he opened his own private law firm mainly specializing in construction, real estate, contractors’ liability, and premises liability cases.
From the opening of his own law practice, he continued to specialize in construction, real estate, and advising developers preceding, concurrent with, and following the completion of real estate projects especially in relation to construction defects, roofing, water intrusion issues, mold disputes along with real estate issues concerning errors and omissions related to buyer’s claims for lack of disclosure. His firm has represented both plaintiffs and defendants. Since the late 1990’s he began taking on cases involving the failure to disclose defects in real estate buy/sell transactions. He became affiliated with the California Real Estate Inspection Association (CREIA) and other home inspection associations which led to his amending their standards of practice and contracts. This led to a 10-year directorship in the American Institute of Home Inspectors (Washington State, Oregon, Nevada, and California) with lectures given by him twice a year at their conventions lasting 3 hours with all lectures accredited for continuing education.
During the 1990’s his law practice expanded to the unusual and in sometimes bazaar cases including (1) his defense verdict in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in the well-publicized case involving 64-plaintiff salmonella case; (2) the non-suit decision in the Los Angeles Superior Court in favor of the Casino who was sued by two gamblers who were seated at the same gaming table, who had a fight with one party removing the other party’s eye from his face, and taking down the gaming table; (3) the defense verdict in a real estate and home inspection case alleging that the realtors and home inspector did not call out mold in the home and a child contracted liver cancer and attorney’s fees were awarded exceeding $300,000 to the defendant; (4) a suit filed to recover my client’s $300,000 in attorney’s fees from the insurance carrier for the plaintiff; (5) the non-suit for damages case which arose from a constitutional “right to privacy” allegation for products purchased by the buyer from the seller; (6) the defense verdict from a pharmaceutical malpractice case causing liver damage along with a liver transplant; and (7) defense verdict in favor of a Realtor being accused by a vexatious lawyer who was ordered to pay damages in excess of $160,000.
Currently his law firm’s practice is limited to plaintiff and defense cases in construction, construction defects, real estate purchase/sales, inspectors’ failure to disclose during escrows, and fix & flip failure to disclose cases.
As of January 2020, he has tried in excess of 150 Superior Court jury trials, far less court trials, and about 150 arbitrations (voluntary and mandatory). Within the real estate, construction, and related real estate parties, he has either advised, represented remodeled, participated in, or bought and sold in excess of 1,000 properties during his 44+ years as an attorney. He has represented plaintiffs and defendants throughout California.
He was featured as a “continuing education” speaker at the national CREIA-ASHI convention in San Diego, the Las Vegas home inspection convention, and for over 10 years with A.I.I. He has been the featured speaker in more than 80 home inspection lectures at various home inspection conventions and chapters in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington State, and Utah.
He has been recognized by the California legal profession for his litigation excellence. He has been named by the Daily Journal, a legal newspaper in California, as the trial lawyer of the month for California in November 1994 which award may only be received once in an attorney’s career. He received front-page notoriety in the Los Angeles Times for his defense and collection of $165,000 in legal fees from the notorious vexious litigant, Robert Hirsch, Esq. He has also been recognized for his defense of cases on the “A-list” in various national and statewide media matters including the “64-plaintiff Salmonella case” which involved such entities as Center for Disease Control (CDC), and “the right of privacy case” which related to the privacy issues surrounding consumer cards used for shopping, and private entities both in California and nationally. Those cases were published in the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and other nationally recognized publications, newspapers, and magazines.
His legal expertise exceeds that of other standard home inspection property damage case lawyers. He has received notoriety for his defense of a home inspector who was sued following a claim of mold-related physical damages by an 8-year-old boy who after moving into a new home following a home inspection was diagnosed with liver cancer. The case went to trial resulting in a defense verdict with an award for the home inspector for over $305,000 along with resulting interest during collection. This is another case where the losing plaintiff thereafter retained his law firm to sue plaintiff’s lawyer for malpractice to recover the cost of that judgment. He was successful in recovering those damages on the former plaintiff’s behalf.
The same general facts occurred in another case brought by a distraught mother who saw her 6-year-old son crushed to death when a 9-foot margarita fountain fell on top of the child. During the lawsuit, he filed a motion for summary judgment against the distraught mother and won. Following a demand upon plaintiff’s counsel for all attorney’s fees and costs, a certified check was later received by his client in that case.
He has acted as a binding arbitrator, mediator and Pro-Tem Judge with the Courts in both Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. He has also been a binding arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association. He served as an advisor to the Office of the Mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley. He was appointed to the Los Angeles County Judicial Administrators’ committee for the reorganization of the California Judicial system. He has made recommendations and was an advisor on various Los Angeles County committees which were part of the county restructuring and reform with John Austin, chief clerk.
Affiliations: Past and Present:
