OAKLAND, Calif.; Jan. 14, 2026 – Donahue Fitzgerald, the East Bay Area's largest law firm, has launched a dedicated Wildfire Litigation Defense Practice Group, focused on representing clients impacted by high-stakes, high-exposure disasters. The group is led by Partner David Bona and Senior Counsel Matthew Sepuya.
In California alone, the 2024 wildfire season incurred billions in losses for property, income and infrastructure. The Donahue Fitzgerald Wildfire Litigation Defense team has experience with the wide range of clients impacted by the growing risk and veracity of these disasters, including vegetation management, telecommunications and utility construction companies in California, Texas, Washington and Colorado, among other states.
"The risks and exposures associated with wildfire litigation have grown in parallel with wildfire risk generally, and defending these matters demands courtroom strength and experience with high-exposure, multi-jurisdictional litigation, as well as a deep technical fluency," said Bona, who has two decades of experience in the area. "We aggregated our strengths across these truly complex cases that often extend into adjacent areas of law, like real estate, construction, employment and business and corporate considerations. Having access to all of these disciplines and bringing that knowledge together is a decided advantage for clients facing these massive wildfire claims."
The dedicated team has in-depth understanding of forensic investigation techniques and technical and scientific evidence, as well as deep expertise with wildfire-specific issues, such as fire origin and cause, fire behavior and progression analysis, GIS mapping and remote sensing technologies, climatology and real property and natural resources damage assessments. Additionally, clients benefit from the team's command of evolving public utility, state and federal regulations.
"We were focused on growth in 2025 and see no stopping in 2026. A big part of our growth strategy has been expanding our capabilities, including adding new practices, and the dedicated Wildfire Litigation Defense Group is just one example of this," said Donahue Fitzgerald Managing Partner Andrew MacKay.