Jill Lisa Friedman

Jill L. Friedman graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and was a Chancellor’s Scholar.  She received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1987.

Ms. Friedman has served as President of Women Lawyers of Ventura County, Ventura County Barristers and Santa Barbara Women Lawyers.  She is a founding member of the Ventura County Diversity Bar Alliance and was the second person to Chair that organization.  At the State level, she served as Vice President of the California Young Lawyers Association and Sergeant-at-Arms at the Conference of Delegates.  She has served on the boards of the Ventura County Bar Association, Santa Barbara County Bar Association, Santa Barbara County Bar Foundation, Santa Barbara Women Lawyers Foundation and the Ventura County Trial Lawyers Association.  She was the editor-in-chief of the Santa Barbara County Bar Association newsletter. She has been both a Barrister and a Master in the William L. Gordon Inns of Court (SB) and a Master in the Jerome Berenson Inns of Court (Ventura).  She has served as a judge pro tem in both the Santa Barbara and Ventura County courts.

Over the past 30 years, Ms. Friedman has been very successful in trying civil cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants.  At the beginning of her career, she cut her teeth as a visiting attorney with the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.  She worked as an insurance defense attorney in Ventura before returning to her hometown of Santa Barbara, where she continued practicing in the field of insurance defense and medical malpractice defense.  For eight years she was a sole practitioner representing injured plaintiffs.  She practiced for nine years with Henderson & Borgeson in Santa Barbara before returning to Ventura.  In 2004, she co-chaired a trial that led to the California Supreme Court decision in Ramirez v. Nelson (2008) 44 908 regarding homeowners’ liability for the wrongful death of an unlicensed, uninsured tree trimmer. In 2011, she was elected to the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) as the fifth female member in the California Coast Chapter, which includes Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties. Nationally, less than 10% of ABOTA members are women. In 2018 she served as the President of the Chapter. In 2012, Pacific Coast Business Times named her to the list of "Who's Who in Attorneys" and the "Top 50 Women in Business". She received the latter recogntition again in 2017. In 2013, Martindale-Hubbell included her among "Los Angeles' Women Leaders in the Law."  That same year, she was nominated for the Ventura County Trial Lawyers Association's Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. In 2016, she received the Legacy Award from the Women Lawyers of Ventura County.