Rachel E. Hobbs is a Partner in Freeman Mathis & Gary’s downtown Los Angeles office. Her practice focuses on insurance coverage and bad faith litigation. She strives to provide the best possible result for her clients, and clients appreciate her ability to resolve complex and novel issues. Ms. Hobbs specializes in personal and commercial auto insurance issues, including the required financial responsibility endorsements such as the MCS-90 and DMV-67.
She has litigated numerous declaratory relief, bad faith and contribution cases arising from catastrophic trucking and auto accidents nationwide. Ms. Hobbs also handles examinations under oath, uninsured/underinsured motorist issues, coverage opinions and reservation of rights letters. In addition, Ms. Hobbs has broad-based experience with Commercial General Liability coverage, having litigated numerous coverage and bad faith cases arising from construction defect, entertainment, and business disputes.
Ms. Hobbs has also handled first-party coverage issues and litigation involving commercial and residential properties, including litigation arising out of the California wildfires. Ms. Hobbs is admitted to all the federal district courts in California. At the appellate level, she has obtained more than 15 published cases in the California Courts of Appeal, California Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit. Among these are watershed decisions regarding the application of the attorney-client privilege to an insurer’s intra-corporate communications and an insurer’s right to reimbursement of defense costs paid under a reservation of rights but never owed. Ms. Hobbs is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (B.S.). She received her law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (J.D.). In her free time, she enjoys hiking, volunteering, and traveling.