W. Allan Edmiston

Allan Edmiston is a trial lawyer with deep experience and a proven track record in high-stakes, difficult cases. He is also Loeb’s General Counsel, responsible for overseeing legal ethics and risk management matters across Loeb’s eight offices.  

Allan leads Loeb’s multidisciplinary Professional Services Litigation team. He defends professional services firms, including law firms and their lawyers, against claims for malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting, malicious prosecution, and fraud, arising out of a variety of contexts and practice areas. In a recent legal malpractice arbitration, Allan obtained a defense award, including prevailing-party attorneys’ fees, for an Am Law 200 law firm.

Allan also litigates major real estate disputes involving breach of contract claims, preemptive rights, landlord-tenant issues, title insurance coverage and bad faith claims, priority rights, and easements. Allan’s trial victories in this area include a defense verdict – after a seven-week jury trial – for a leading title insurer in a case involving a bad faith claim seeking $100 million in damages.  

Most recently, following years of litigation, a trial and an appeal, Allan obtained a published appellate decision affirming that the renowned Claremont Colleges are entitled to enforce – as equitable servitudes dating back decades, to 1957 – a right of first offer and an educational use restriction, both burdening the former campus of the Claremont School of Theology. A subsequent arbitration hearing established that the first-offer repurchase price was approximately $7.7 million, not the fair market value of the property, which CST argued was no less than $86.6 million.  

…You have done an outstanding job arguing this case. Your client should be very proud of your representation. I really mean that. CA Superior Court judge commenting on Allan’s advocacy following closing argument during trial