Results, Responsibility, and the Rule of Law
From Record-Setting Verdicts to Leading ABOTA San Diego, Bibianne Fell’s Rise Reflects a Commitment to Excellence On and Off the Trial Stage
During the last five years, Fell Law, PC went from a brand-new firm to its founder, Bibianne (Bibi) Fell being named 2026 Consumer Attorneys of San Diego’s Trial Lawyer of the Year, leading the San Diego Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates as its President, and achieving the Number 1 Premises Liability settlement in the United States in 2025 (Davis v. City of Encinitas, et al.).
This dramatic victory was only one of Fell’s career successes, which include: a $105 million verdict in a medical fraud cause, $15 million for workers in a wage and hour class action settlement, $5.3 million in a wrongful death case, $5 million in a medical malpractice case, $5 million for a boy who was hit while riding his bicycle, $4.19 million post-trial judgment in a tractor collision case, $5 million in a brain injury case, and many other high-value, but confidential, settlements.
Her recent honors follow a tradition of recognition for her professional achievements, including: 2022 and 2025 Finalist for Consumer Attorneys of California Consumer Attorney of the Year, 2019 and 2025 Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award, 2022 Society of Women Trial Lawyers’ Woman of the Year, 2021 Consumer of Attorneys of San Diego Outstanding Consumer Advocate Award, 2020 Pepperdine Trial Lawyer’s Conference Trial Lawyer of the Year and 2018’s second-largest Personal Injury verdict in California, and one of 2018’s top 10 verdicts in the U.S. She has been honored as a Top 100 Women Lawyers listee in Daily Journal, Lawdragon Top 500 Plaintiff’s Lawyers, and SuperLawyers top 50 honoree in the Southern California region.
“For me, the list of accolades is less important than the opportunity it gives me to use whatever platform I am given to be a responsible citizen—for our clients, for our profession, and for the next generation,” Fell says.
Presidential Agenda
Fell was sworn in as the 2026 San Diego Chapter President of the American Board of Trial Advocates last December. The American Board of Trial Advocates (“ABOTA”) is an invitation-only organization dedicated to the preservation of the right to trial by jury, the rule of law, and the highest standards of ethics, civility, and professionalism. Membership is granted only to those attorneys who have demonstrated a high level of excellence in the courtroom and a commitment to ethics, civility, and professionalism.
“I, of course, feel honored to be entrusted by my colleagues to lead such a prestigious organization. I simultaneously feel the weight of the responsibility to lead San Diego ABOTA at this time. ABOTA’s mission, message, and programs have never been more important to our community,” Fell says.
San Diego ABOTA’s impact in civics education includes: the Morse High School Project, which exposes high school students at the East San Diego school to careers in the legal system. Local attorneys, judges, and legal professionals, including courtroom staff and court reporters, speak to the high school students about their personal journeys and careers in the law and run a mock trial competition for the students. Teachers Law School is a one-day event where local teachers learn about our legal system from judges and attorneys. It is designed to excite and support local civics education. San Diego ABOTA also sponsors a local teacher to attend the national ABOTA Foundation’s Civics Summit, which brings teachers from around the country together to support each other in creating and teaching a civics education curriculum.
Responding to an increase in unfair criticism, public pressure, and even threats to and attacks on judges, San Diego ABOTA created a Rapid Response team ready to support judges. “Our hard-working judges cannot directly respond to unfair public criticism. We are ready to respond for them in a way that educates the public on our judicial system so that unfair attacks do not erode judicial independence or public confidence in our justice system.
I am proud of the work that our chapter does and the example of civility and professionalism set by our members. We will continue to lead the field and support our community,” Fell says.
Bibianne (Bibi) Fell, Founder & Attorney
Educating Future Leaders in Law
Fell is a member of the Board of Visitors for the University of San Diego, School of Law, an adjunct professor of Advanced Trial Advocacy, a Program Director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and a frequent lecturer at Trial Lawyer Associations across the country. “I think it is really important for those of us who have excelled in the field to give back in a way that shapes a better future for the profession. Teaching core skills, civility, and professionalism is a way that I can use my time and talents in a way that I hope encourages future leaders in law.”
Philanthropy
Fell gives back not only with her time, but also through philanthropy. She chooses the organizations and efforts most meaningful to her to support. “I try to choose one major effort to support in a larger, more meaningful way. My giving tracks the issues about which I feel most passionate—education, justice, and childhood cancer research.”
Fell endowed a diversity scholarship at USD School of Law, which gives a financial scholarship to one diverse law student every year.
Fell is an ABOTA Foundation PACESetter, which means she has given an endowment to the ABOTA Foundation. As a trustee for the (national) Foundation for ABOTA, Fell works to promote civics education, professionalism, and the rule of law.
When Fell’s daughter was four years old, she was diagnosed with liver cancer (hepatoblastoma). Inspired by personal experience, Fell started a fund at Rady Children’s Hospital to create an Endowed Chair to attract and retain the best researchers and clinicians in the world for solid tumors in kids. With federal funding for childhood cancer research shrinking, institutions will need to rely on private donors more to fund research that saves lives. “A clinical trial saved my daughter’s life. I want to do what I can to improve outcomes for children and families who receive a cancer diagnosis.” Fell is also a board member for the Hepatoblastoma Resource Network, working to connect families with other families as mentors. “Staying connected to the childhood cancer community and seeing the familiar journey of other families continually ignites my desire to have a positive impact.”
Fell financially supports legislative efforts to maintain a fair justice system. “There are corporate efforts to put a finger on the scale of justice, including by limiting attorneys’ fees for plaintiffs while allowing unlimited funding for defendants. Our adversarial system of justice only works when both sides have access to skilled advocates. Tipping the scale in either direction destroys fairness in the justice system.”
Scaling Down to Scale Up Client Service
Despite Fell’s diverse and meaningful impacts, her greatest passion remains practicing law. “I always wanted to be a trial lawyer, and I realized that I was not going to try cases in “big law,” or at least not as many or as often as I would like. When I looked around, it seemed like it was the plaintiff’s lawyers who were getting into trial. I decided to shift my area of law to an area where I would get to be in trial and work with individual clients 100 percent of the time,” Fell says.
After graduating magna cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law in 2004, Fell handled complex commercial litigation and employment disputes at what was then the largest law firm in the country. While the work was intellectually challenging and rewarding, she made the decision to make the shift to representing those suffering serious injury and wrongful death.
Fell says, “I got to be in trial. I was good at it, and I was spending a lot more time talking to and helping individual people. I could see the life-changing results of my work in real time, which was deeply satisfying. I can’t say that making the switch was challenging. It felt like a breath of fresh air. I knew instantly this was where I was always supposed to be.”
Marlee Horwitz, Attorney and Bibianne (Bibi) Fell, Founder & Attorney
Calling a Bluff
The Davis case is an example of how Fell’s transition to plaintiff work has achieved her goal of personal service to individual clients in serious need of legal services. Davis v. City of Encinitas involved a large, extended family enjoying an outing at the city’s Grandview Beach. A huge, multi-ton block of sandstone overlooking the beach collapsed and crushed three women. Fell represented their family members.
“The case was huge and consumed a lot of our bandwidth,” Fell says. In the Davis case, she uncovered that the defendants were repeatedly warned by scientists and engineers of potential life-threatening dangers posed by excessive water due to poor storm drain management and irrigation, and the growth of a heavy, water-laden ice plant creating an unstable sandstone environment. These conditions created an “acknowledged hazardous area” where “additional injuries would occur.” She also discovered that in the 1980s, a similar collapse on that beach destroyed the access stairs and, a state geologist recommended that stairs not be rebuilt for safety reasons. On the day of the tragedy, the city’s one sign warning of that danger was hidden behind a trash can and could not be seen by the public.
After opposing a demurrer and five motions for summary judgment, overcoming governmental and non-governmental immunities such as natural condition immunity, design immunity, and recreational use immunity, the case settled for $32.85 million plus an additional confidential amount. The victory was not just for the victims, but extended to all San Diegans who enjoy Encinitas beaches. The City of Encinitas partnered with Fell to make safety changes including increase warning signage at all city beach access points, creating a public webpage warning of the dangers associated with a bluff collapse, a QR code at beach access points linking to bluff warnings, enhanced lifeguard safety measures, development of additional life-guard policies regarding bluff-related hazards, and the requirement that warning signs state they are in memory of the victims. “I was so impressed by my clients who, every step of the way, had the primary goal of making sure no other family would endure a similar tragedy,” Fell says.
Fell says her experience working at a large firm is an asset not only for Fell Law but for the firm’s clients. She credits her early years practicing complex commercial litigation for her discipline in terms of “the number of hours you work, the depth to which you study a case, and pushing the boundaries of the law to take the law from where it is to where it should be.” Approaching her personal injury practice with the same discipline and intellectual rigor has led her to achieve high-profile results in unconventional cases.
The Fell Law Team
Growth in Quality, Not Quantity
“We have a small team, and we do not plan to grow. Our commitment is to continue to accept a limited number of high-impact cases.”
Attorney Marlee Horwitz started working for Fell in 2019 as a first-year law student and joined Fell Law in 2021, immediately after graduating from the University of San Diego School of Law. She has tried cases with Fell to verdict, taken and defended depositions of lay and expert witnesses, and written countless motions. She has successfully opposed numerous case-dispositive motions and wrote a prevailing brief on behalf of her client in the California Court of Appeals. Fell says, “She is my right hand.”
Desi Sanders is the firm’s paralegal, who runs the administration of the firm as well as managing the firm’s case filings. She began working for Fell at age 16 by watching Fell’s children. She worked for a time in the restaurant industry before Fell brought her into the firm and trained her as a legal assistant. “She has worked her way up to paralegal, and I think she’s the best trial paralegal out there,” Fell says.
At the end of the day, for the Fell Law team, it’s all about having a meaningful impact in the community and for her clients. “I love making a difference for one person, one family. When I was in “big law,” I did a lot of very intellectually difficult and interesting things. We pushed the envelope, we changed existing law, and we made new law. But I did not go home at the end of the day feeling like I made a real difference in somebody’s life. Here, I know every day we have made a real difference in the lives of our clients, and there’s nothing better than that feeling.”
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