Kenneth Chiate, Quinn Emanuel. (Photo: Jamie Rector)

After a decade of representing California utilities in wildfire litigation, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has switched sides, filing a lawsuit this week against Southern California Edison on behalf of former U.S. Congressman David Dreier.

The suit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges Edison was responsible for the 2018 wildfire that ripped through about 100,000 acres and killed three people in the Los Angeles area, destroying more than 500 properties, including Drier's home in Malibu. Quinn Emanuel partner Kenneth Chiate, who lost his own Malibu home in a 1993 wildfire, said he wanted to represent victims of the last year's Woolsey Fire.

Dreier was elected chairman of the board of Tribune Publishing Co. in January.

“I started by just being a good citizen and community member, and neighbor, of the people whose homes were destroyed, and started advising them,” said Chiate, who still lives in Malibu but whose home was spared from the Woolsey Fire, which started Nov. 8. “Then, after a bit of time, too many people asked if I could represent them in the Woolsey Fire.”

The suit names Southern California Edison and its parent corporation, Edison International. Sally Jeun, a spokeswoman for Edison, which faces about 20 lawsuits over the Woolsey Fire, declined to comment, noting that an “ongoing investigation is underway by CALFIRE and Ventura County Fire. SCE is fully cooperating in their investigation.”

Quinn Emanuel has defended Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric Co. against claims associated with 2007 wildfires in that area, and continues to represent it in fire-related legal actions. The firm also is defending San Francisco-based PG&E, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Jan. 29, citing potentially more than $30 billion in legal costs associated with wildfires that broke out last year in Northern California, one of which killed 86 people. Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Cravath, Swaine & Moore are representing PG&E in its bankruptcy filing.

Quinn's role is more limited, representing PG&E in claims associated with a 2015 fire in Butte County, most of which have settled, and Chiate emphasized that the firm has never represented Southern California Edison. He said the firm ran a conflicts check before representing Woolsey Fire victims.

“We saw no conflict of interest in our representing victims of the Woolsey Fire against Edison, despite the fact that we had been, and were still, representing Pacific Gas & Electric, in connection with the Butte Fire,” he said.

In fact, Chiate said, his firm has a unique perspective, having dealt with several prior wildfires on the defense side.

“Having now dealt for 10 years with four different fires, you learn what the plaintiffs' feelings, emotions and losses are like,” he said. “Having resolved those cases, you have a better appreciation for how much they suffered and what their losses are, that sometimes people don't know.”

In Dreier's suit, Quinn Emanuel has teamed up with Walter Lack, at Los Angeles-based Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack, a firm Chiate said he knew well from having litigated on the other side of it.

He said his firm has at least 25 other clients planning to sue over the Woolsey Fire. On Wednesday, Chiate was in Malibu, flying drones over the homes and properties of two of those clients to assess their damages.

“After 26 years, I've never forgotten it, all the experiences I went through: the denial, and shock, and sorrow, and sadness,” he said.

Dreier was elected for 16 terms as a Republican representing districts centered in Los Angeles County, serving from 1981 to 2013. He rose to the post of chairman of the Rules Committee in the House of Representatives.