Firm History

he firm Sullivan, Workman & Dee, LLP is named after three of its founding partners: Roger M. Sullivan, Henry K. Workman and John J. Dee.

Since its inception, the firm of Sullivan, Workman & Dee, LLP has been dedicated to helping private property owners protect their property interests from government intrusion and to seek just compensation. For example, the firm represented the last private land owner on Santa Cruz Island when the federal government sued to acquire the land for the Channel Islands National Park. When the government offered only $4.25 million, the firm obtained a jury award of $12.782 million, plus an additional $1.5 million in interest.

Over the past sixty years, the firm and its predecessors have successfully represented over a thousand private property owners in eminent domain and inverse condemnation cases and the firm continues to represent private property owners in eminent domain actions throughout Southern California. The firm also continues its tradition of supporting the advancement of eminent domain law, with contributions by its partners to the renowned treatise, Nichols on Eminent Domain and the submission of amicus curiae briefs in cutting edge eminent domain law cases such as Metropolitan Water District of Southern California v. Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc. (2007) 41 Cal.4^th 954 and Los Angeles Unified School District v. Pulgarin (2009) 175 Cal.App.4^th 101. Gary Kovacic, one of the firm's current partners, has been named as one of the best Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law attorneys in the Los Angeles Times Magazine’s “Southern California’s Best Lawyers: 2010 Edition.”

However, the firm's practice areas have expanded beyond its eminent domain roots to embrace a wide array of practice areas, such as employment discrimination and wrongful termination, estate planning and probate litigation, real property transactions and litigation, corporate transactions and litigation, and entertainment law. For example, the firm successfully argued the case of Stewart v. Seward (2007) 148 Cal.App.4^th 1513, which firmly established the scope of the statute of limitations on creditor's claims against a decedent's estate under Code of Civil Procedure § 366.3. The firm also regularly litigates a variety of claims from wrongful termination under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act to breach of contract in connection with real estate transactions to breach of royalties contracts.