REAGAN & COLE - Key Persons
Ms. Soltis joined Slaughter, Reagan, and Cole in September 2018. Before joining the firm, she started her career at a civil litigation firm in Los Angeles, where she practiced primarily Personal Injury and Construction Defect Law.
Education
Pepperdine University School of Law - Juris Doctorate, 2016
Attorney William M. Slaughter is the founding partner of the firm. A trial attorney for 30 years, his practice focuses on commercial and real estate litigation, complex insurance defense cases (including insurance bad faith, personal injury, habitability and mold cases). He has arbitrated and tried dozens of cases to conclusion.
Attorney Slaughter serves as a judge pro tem and provides mediation services on a private basis. Attorney Slaughter brings the same innovative and result-oriented approach to mediation that he does to litigation. He focuses heavily on pre-mediation preparation and aggressively pursuing resolution.
Attorney William Slaughter has an excellent reputation as a lawyer across Southern California. He was given an AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell (the highest rating possible) more than 25 years ago. He was named a "Super Lawyer" every year from 2009 through the most recent listing in 2017 and he was named as one of the "Best Lawyers in America" beginning in 2012.
Education
Humboldt University - Bachelor of Arts Degree, Political Science, with honors, 1979
University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law - Juris Doctor, 1982
Mr. Reagan is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and a partner in the firm. He represents a wide variety of clients including community associations, non-profits, officers and directors, corporations in business disputes, advertising injury, defendants in personal injury actions, real estate, and business litigation.
Ms. Hoffman joined Slaughter, Reagan & Cole in November 2021. Before joining the firm, she worked at a civil litigation firm in Sacramento, where she practiced primarily business litigation and trust and estate litigation.
Carol DeSoto joined Slaughter, Reagan & Cole in July of 2016. She comes to the firm with almost 25 years of litigation experience in state, federal and appellate courts all across the country. She has experience in both large and smaller firms and in cases of all sizes. She handles a variety of litigation cases, ranging from personal injury to toxic tort class-action cases.
Ms. Mellring recently joined Slaughter, Reagan & Cole in July 2022. While in law school she worked in family law and corporate land development.
Mr. Reagan recently joined Slaughter, Reagan & Cole in September 2023. During law school he interned with the Ventura County District Attorney's Office and participated in the Pepperdine Trial Team.
Mr. Smyle joined Slaughter, Reagan & Cole in June of 2023. Before joining the firm, he worked at civil litigation firms in Sacramento and Santa Barbara, where he practiced primarily in complex civil litigation, insurance bad faith litigation and personal injury. He has extensive experience in litigation including representation of government entities, businesses, and individuals.
At Slaughter, Reagan & Cole, LLP, Gabriele M. Lashly handles law and motions, writs and appeals. She also advises clients about German law and serves as an expert witness on German legal issues.
A native of Germany, Ms. Lashly began her career as an international attorney with Ross & Hardies in Chicago in 1982. She returned to Germany and worked for the Justice Department of the State of Bremen and was the personal aide and spokesperson for the Secretary of Justice and Federal Affairs. Later, she was the responsible attorney for civil legislative matters. In 1988, she was appointed to the bench and served as a judge in Bremen, Germany.
After moving to California, Ms. Lashly was admitted to practice law in 1992. Ms. Lashly was Certified as a Specialist in Appellate Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization between 2003 and 2022.
Prior to joining Slaughter, Reagan & Cole, LLP, Ms. Lashly practiced writs and appeals for over twelve years with Lascher & Lascher in Ventura, developing a broad range of appellate experience. Ms. Lashly has handled over one hundred appeals in the California Court of Appeal and also appeared before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- in - House Corporate Counsel
Previously, Mr. Partida has served as in-house corporate counsel and outside corporate counsel to small and mid-sized companies. In addition, he has practiced in the areas of Construction Law, Construction Defect litigation, Employment law, Wage & Hour litigation, General Real Estate Law, Products Liability, and Insurance Subrogation.
James B. Cole, a partner in the firm since merging with it in 2004, focuses his private client practice on transactional matters and litigation related to business, real property and serious bodily injury. In addition to buy/sell agreements, land purchase agreements, leases and other contract matters, Mr. Cole is instrumental in the formation and maintenance of corporate and LLC entities for his clients.
Mr. Cole's litigation experience includes the representation of private business clients and insurance carrier appointed clients. He has extensive trial experience in the areas of real property, breach of contract, premises liability, construction defect, business, employer defense and serious personal injury.
Mr. Cole began serving as a Judge Pro Tem and arbitrator on behalf of the Santa Barbara Superior Court in the mid 1990's and is currently serving in those same capacities for the Ventura County Superior Court. He is regularly retained as a private mediator, due to respect from both sides of the Bar. He frequently speaks at the request of the Oxnard Police Department in their Crime Free Program to owners and management firms of residential properties. He is often asked to be a guest lecturer at college real property classes. He has been the featured speaker in several real property seminars, as well as a panel speaker in construction defect seminars. He heads the construction defect unit of the firm.
Job Titles:
- of Counsel
- Resident of Thousand Oaks
Jeffrey J. Halfen is a trial lawyer who has been practicing in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties for over 25 years. He has participated in all phases of business, real estate, construction defect and insurance defense litigation. Mr. Halfen also has significant experience in personal injury litigation. Mr. Halfen is of counsel at Slaughter & Reagan.
Mr. Halfen graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1983. Mr. Halfen attended law school at the University of California, Davis and earned his Juris Doctor Degree in 1987. While attending law school, he received the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Halfen was awarded membership in the Order of the Coif.
Mr. Halfen was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1987. He is also admitted in the United States District Court (Central and Southern Districts).
Mr. Halfen is a resident of Thousand Oaks, where he lives with his wife and son. Mr. Halfen volunteers as an attorney coach for the Newbury Park Mock Trial Team and has previously coached at Simi Valley High School. In his free time, Mr. Halfen enjoys hiking, reading and music.
Jeffrey grew up in Carpinteria, and has been living in the Santa Barbara and Ventura areas since graduating as Salutatorian of Carpinteria High School in 1998. He worked at the Kumon tutoring center for nearly 20 years, from 1992 to 2011. After high school, Jeffrey attended Bowdoin College in Maine and then graduated from UCSB with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
After graduating from the Santa Barbara College of Law and passing the bar exam in 2010, Jeffrey began his legal career as an associate attorney at a civil litigation firm. In 2014, he opened a general solo practice specializing in Estate Planning, Trust Administration, Family Law, and Personal Injury, which he ran for almost 10 years before joining Slaughter, Reagan & Cole in February 2023.
Jeffrey enjoys playing pick-up basketball and tennis in his free time, as well as riding his bicycle to the beach. He also enjoys collecting and fixing old clocks, and writing science fiction stories about cosmology and metaphysics.
Attorney Jennifer Volcy is a recent addition to Slaughter, Regan & Cole. Before joining our practice, Attorney Volcy worked at a plaintiff's litigation firm, practicing primarily in the areas of Employment Law, Wage & Hour litigation, Personal Injury Law, and Medical Malpractice Law.
Mr. Marshall's practice focuses on civil litigation, primarily in the areas of complex business litigation, unfair competition, intellectual property litigation, real estate litigation, and personal injury.
Mr. Heimler joined Slaughter, Reagan & Cole in 2017. He focuses his practice on general civil litigation, personal injury and wrongful death, landlord-tenant issues, habitability, homeowners' association disputes, underground utility excavation cases and general liability matters.
Mr. Lebow started as an associate with the firm in 2012, after serving two summers as a law-clerk. He was named a partner in 2019. He handles a variety of cases, including bad faith, habitability, personal injury defense, general liability defense, real estate litigation, and business litigation. He also handles private plaintiff business and real estate disputes and commercial litigation matters.
Sean Suarez joined Slaughter, Reagan & Cole in December of 2022. He comes to the firm from a boutique Beverly Hills law firm with almost 27 years of litigation experience in California, federal, tax and appellate courts. Over his career he has handled case with both large and boutique smaller firms and of all sizes. He has vast experience in litigation, and cases from personal injury, contract & business disputes, probate and estates, family law, IRS tax litigation, and state and county tax assessor challenges, as well as IRS tax litigation.