Kelly Christina Winter

Kelly W. Weil is a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP's Santa Monica office, where she litigates on behalf of consumers, businesses, municipalities, whistleblowers, and injured individuals. Kelly handles a wide variety of complex cases in state and federal courts throughout California including environmental, qui tam, elder abuse, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, fraud, and consumer class actions through settlement, arbitration, and trial. Kelly is passionate about preserving natural resources for future generations and actively handles a wide variety of environmental cases relating to contaminated air, soil, and water.

Throughout her career, Kelly has taken hundreds of depositions of corporate executives, environmental consultants, regulatory agencies, adverse witnesses, and experts. She is a zealous advocate who uses an interdisciplinary approach to bring cases over the finish line and frequently serves on trial teams and in leadership roles. Kelly was named a Super Lawyers’ Rising Star for 2022 and 2023 and a Super Lawyer for 2024 and 2025.

A Santa Monica native, Kelly received her Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in Political Theory and interned for the office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. She received her J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where she served as a judicial extern to the Hon. Philip S. Gutierrez, United States District Court for the Central District of California, and as a clinical extern with the Loyola Project for the Innocent (a student clinic which has successfully aided in exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals). Kelly clerked full-time throughout law school for a Los Angeles civil litigation firm advocating on behalf of plaintiffs where she continued her work as a practicing attorney for another six years before joining CPM.

Since 2015, Kelly has been involved with the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, where she serves as a volunteer attorney and sits on the Leadership Council. As a volunteer attorney, Kelly has been successful in obtaining numerous Domestic Violence Restraining Orders on behalf of victims of domestic abuse (both physical and financial).

When Kelly is not working, she enjoys cooking, doing yoga, and spending time at the beach with her family and friends. While she has remained geographically close to her roots, Kelly also loves to travel and has studied abroad in Sweden, Italy, and Costa Rica. She lives in Topanga Canyon with her husband, daughter, and son.

Representative Matters

Throughout her career, Kelly has represented tens of thousands of clients in individual, mass tort, and class action cases against pharmaceutical companies, public utilities, energy companies, automotive manufacturers, and more.

Notable cases:

Represents cancer victims and survivors in litigation against Sterigenics and others relating to emissions of carcinogenic Ethylene Oxide from Sterigenics’ Vernon, California sterilization facilities.

Serves as lead counsel representing thousands of individuals in litigation arising from Hydrogen Sulfide exposure from the Dominguez Channel. Served as trial counsel for 24 Bellwether Plaintiffs, which resulted in an $8,800, (eight million, eight hundred thousand) compensatory and punitive damages jury verdict.

Represents municipalities and private water companies in investigation and litigation related to PFAS-contaminated groundwater.

Served on the trial team and Plaintiffs' Steering Committee for the Southern California Gas Leak Cases (JCCP 4861) against SoCalGas and Sempra Energy, which involved the largest known anthropogenic release of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) in U.S. history. The case resulted in a settlement of $1,800,000, (one billion, eight hundred million dollars).

Served as lead counsel in cases arising from death and injury caused by COVID-19 upon cruise ships operated by Princess Cruises, resulting in confidential settlements.

Represented businesses and individuals in litigation arising from a crude oil spill from a ruptured Amplify Energy pipeline off the shore of Orange County. The case resulted in a settlement of $95,000, (ninety five million dollars) from Amplify Energy and various shipping companies.

Represented plaintiffs against Boston Scientific Corporation and others in product liability litigation arising from the implantation of transvaginal mesh.

Represented plaintiffs against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation in pharmaceutical litigation arising from use of the drug Zometa.

CPM Investigating PFAS Contamination

Eaton Fire Cases (Lead Case No. 25STCV00731)

Honors & Recognitions

2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers

Finalist for Consumer Attorneys of California’s Consumer Attorney of the Year Award (2022)

Finalist for Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles’ Rising Star Award (2021)

Honored as a Southern California “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers (2022, 2023)

Honored as a Southern California “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers (2024, 2025, 2026)

Honored as one of the 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers in America by Lawdragon (2025, 2026)

Honored as a "Top 40 Under 40" Lawyer in California by the Daily Journal (2025)

In the News

06 Feb 2026

Massive Verdict in Carson Hydrogen Sulfide Disaster

18 Mar 2024

Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Residents of Maywood for Exposure to Cancer Causing Ethylene Oxide

04 Nov 2021

Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Three Generation Family in Carson, CA Suffering from Exposure to Toxic Levels of Hydrogen Sulfide for Over a Month

12 Oct 2021

Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Impacted Commercial Fishermen in The Orange County Oil Spill Case

07 Oct 2021

Major Orange County Oil Spill Class Action Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Businesses Impacted by Oil Spill

04 Oct 2021

Huntington Beach Oil Spill Will Have Consequences for Years, Lawyers Say

27 Sep 2021

Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy Announces SoCalGas Well Blowout Lawsuit has Settled for a Record $1.8 Billion

13 Jan 2021

Despite Court Closures, 2020 Brought Big Courthouse Wins for Plaintiffs in the Southern California Gas Leak Cases

20 May 2020

Shocking COVID Cover-up: Hollywood Nursing Home Forges Death Certificate to Hide its COVID Problem; CPM Assists Family to Sue for Accountability

Blog Posts

10 Jun 2026

Supreme Court Clarifies Freight Broker Liability in Truck Accident Cases

13 Jan 2021

Despite Court Closures, 2020 Brought Big Courthouse Wins for Plaintiffs in the Southern California Gas Leak Cases

07 Jan 2021

PFAS Litigation Floods Court Dockets

20 Oct 2020

The Apex Doctrine Does Not Preclude Taking the Depositions of Top-Level Executives and Agency Heads with Personal Knowledge of Information or Communications Material to the Action

03 May 2020

Nursing Home Residents Among the Vulnerable Populations Disproportionately Affected by COVID-19

Civic

Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, Leadership Council and Volunteer Attorney (2015-Present)