Victoria Tsylina focuses her practice on litigation in business, real estate, trust and probate matters.  Her main objective is to promote clients’ interests, aggressively working up their cases and developing thorough legal strategies on their behalf.  Ms. Tsylina has extensive experience in all phases of litigation, including taking and defending depositions, law and motion practice, alternative dispute resolution procedures, and trial.  She has attained favorable results for her clients in early stages of litigation, by obtaining summary judgments and dismissals via demurrers.  Ms. Tsylina’s other representative achievements involve the following:

  • Tsylina second-chaired the trial of a medical malpractice action involving complex cosmetic surgery procedures. Due to Ms. Tsylina’s strong defense of the action, during the middle of trial, plaintiff agreed to settle for less than 10% of her claimed damages;
  • Tsylina and her colleague tried a premises liability case where plaintiff was severely injured on-site, requiring extensive orthopedic surgery. Ms. Tsylina was able to prove that plaintiff’s future lost earnings claim of approximately $2,000,000 was actually worth zero.  Although plaintiff’s claimed damages exceeded $3,000,000, the jury awarded her only $180,000, barely more than what Ms. Tsylina’s client offered as settlement before trial;
  • Tsylina, along with her team, successfully prosecuted a class action lawsuit against a national retail chain. Her clients alleged that they and other employees were misclassified as exempt employees, when they were actually non-exempt and entitled to compensation for overtime and breaks.  After engaging in extensive class action discovery and aggressively pushing the case to trial, defendant agreed to seven-figure settlement and to fairly treat such employees going forward.

Ms. Tsylina graduated magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from Loyola Law School.  During law school, she served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Arthur Alarcon in the United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit) and the California Superior Court Judge Rex Heeseman.

Prior to becoming a litigator in the United States, Ms. Tsylina earned her law degree and practiced privately in Russia.  Because the Russian legal system (civil law) shares many features with the common law system, Ms. Tsylina developed superior negotiation skills that have proven helpful to her as an attorney in the United States.

Ms. Tsylina is fluent in both English and Russian, and also speaks conversational Spanish.

Ms. Tsylina is a member of American Bar Association and Los Angeles County Bar Association. She provides continuing legal education and enjoys preparing presentations on topics involving cutting-edge legal issues. Her recent presentations include “New Rules of Professional Conduct,” “Habitability Issues from Landlord’s Prospective,” and “Obtaining a Summary Judgment in Premises Liability Cases under Cause of Action for Negligence.”

Education:

  • Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California

Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, May 2013

  • Dean’s Honor List
  • Sayre Macneil Scholar
  • Mabel Wilson Richards Scholarship; J. Rex Dibble Scholarship; Jesuit Community Scholarship
  • Stavropol State University, Stavropol, Russia

Bachelor of Arts, Law, October 2009

  • Dean’s List
  • First Honors Award for graduate thesis The Killing by a Mother of the Newborn Child

Professional Associations/Memberships:

  • Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • American Bar Association
  • Westside Bar Association
  • Claims Litigation Management Alliance
  • Professional Liability Underwriters Society

Awards:

  • Southern California Super Lawyers – Rising Star, 2021
  • Southern California Super Lawyers – Rising Star, 2022

Victoria V. Tsylina's Representative Matters by Practice Area

Employment Litigation

  • Successfully prosecuted a class action lawsuit against a national retail chain.  Ms. Tsylina’s clients alleged that they and other employees were misclassified as exempt employees, when they were actually non-exempt and entitled to compensation for overtime and breaks.  After engaging in extensive class action discovery and aggressively pushing the case to trial, defendant agreed to seven-figure settlement and to fairly treat such employees going forward.

  • Successfully defended wage-and-hour litigation and had Plaintiff-alleged employee agree to a mutual walkaway by filing a cross-complaint against him for breach of contract and disgorgement of profits for performing work without necessary licenses.

Real Estate Litigation

  • Negotiated a favorable settlement in a case involving real property disputes related to the partition and ownership of three residential real properties located in Los Angeles, with total value of approximately $6,000,000.

  • Successfully defended a case for breach of fiduciary duty between tenants-in-common who owned residential property, by filing a cross-complaint for partition of that property and negotiating a favorable settlement solution, where Plaintiff agreed to client’s proposed voluntary sale of the property during one of the best seasons for home sales.

  • Within a few weeks after Ms. Tsylina filed a motion for summary judgment on behalf of Defendant-Home Owners Association on the issue of CC&Rs’ interpretation, the homeowner agreed to dismiss his suit for a payment of a nominal sum representing less than 5% of his claimed damages.

Trust, Estate & Probate Litigation

  • Successfully defended a spouse in a probate matter involving a motion to reopen her late husband’s estate proceeding. The decedent’s property was already administered pursuant to a court order which left everything to the spouse.  The moving party claimed he had recently found the decedent’s will in which the decedent had left the bulk of the estate to him, and that the spouse therefore was not entitled to the decedent’s property.  Ms. Tsylina was able to prove that the decedent had revoked that will and that the distribution to the spouse was therefore appropriate.  Ms. Tsylina also successfully argued that the moving party significantly delayed bringing the probate proceedings before the Court.  The motion was denied in favor of Ms. Tsylina’s client, with the original court order on spousal property petition left undisturbed.

Premises Liability

  • Tried a premises liability case where plaintiff was severely injured on-site, requiring extensive orthopedic surgery. Ms. Tsylina was able to prove that plaintiff’s future lost earnings claim of approximately $2,000,000 was actually worth zero.  Although plaintiff’s claimed damages exceeded $3,000,000, the jury awarded her only $180,000, barely more than what Ms. Tsylina’s client offered as settlement before trial. This case and its trial were featured in Daily Journal on April 1, 2017, at https://www.dailyjournal.com/verdicts_and_settlements/103356-daisy-rivera-v-super-center-concepts-inc-dba-superior-grocers-and-does-1-to-50

  • successfully argued and obtained summary judgment on behalf of her client on the issue of their lack of control over the premises where Plaintiffs were injured.

Malpractice

  • Won a summary judgment motion for attorney client in a legal malpractice lawsuit in which Plaintiff demanded $5 Million in damages against its former attorney. This case was featured in Daily Journal on February 5, 2021. Read article here.

  • Negotiated a favorable settlement for a client in accountancy malpractice case involving complex tax issues on innocent spouse relief, equitable relief and separate liability election.

  • Second-chaired the trial of a medical malpractice action involving complex cosmetic surgery procedures. Due to Ms. Tsylina’s strong defense of the action, during the middle of trial, plaintiff agreed to settle for less than 10% of her claimed damages.