Mary-Christine “M.C.” Sungaila, Shareholder and Chair of Buchalter's Appellate Practice Group

Buchalter, Irvine

Named more than a dozen times to the Daily Journal's Top Women Lawyers and Litigators Lists, M.C. Sungaila in August 2020 became the first chair of Buchalter's appellate practice group, which was founded 30 years ago by retired California Supreme Court Justice Marcus Kaufman. She is one of a handful of female and Hispanic appellate practice leaders nationwide. Building on her decade of adjunct

teaching at law schools and work as the founder and Dean of the OCBA's Summer Appellate Academy (designed to train the next generation of appellate lawyers online, through the pandemic), she and the firm immediately established the Kaufman Appellate Fellowship, a first for BigLaw - an apprenticeship training ground for the next generation of appellate lawyers designed to catapult new lawyers into appellate clerkships and appellate practice. In 2020-2021, she won six appellate cases and served as counsel of record in four separate U.S. Supreme Court cases.