📞 (310) 598 - 6900
WE TAKE THE TOUGHEST FIRE CASES
The total loss cases where our clients have to rebuild their homes from the ground up, or recover from losing multiple properties in a single fire.
True to our roots as real estate litigators, we relish the courtroom battles that bring our clients maximum recovery.
Our lawyers have more than a century of combined experience litigating real estate disaster cases against Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).
Why us?
Bespoke Services.
We are not personal injury lawyers who represent tens of thousands of homeowners. We are experienced real estate litigators who focus on a smaller group of clients in order to tailor our services to each homeowner.
Community Ties.
Our lawyers have long-standing community ties to the cities affected by the wildfires. We are not out-of-town lawyers “helicoptering” into Los Angeles. Steve Blum has extensive knowledge of Malibu and Pacific Palisades from litigating dozens of major landslides for 3 decades in these areas and settling many total loss Malibu (Woolsey) fire cases. He’s won, among others, a $16.3 million recovery for a single home in Pacific Palisades, and a $380 million settlement for the Pacific Lumber Company, a $90 million recovery in the Malibu Big Rock Mesa case.
Personal Experience.
Our lawyers have been personally affected by wildfires. Steve Blum, who lives in both Los Angeles and Montecito, spent the last six years helping his neighbors rebuild after the Thomas Fire and Montecito Mudslides. Gary Ho, who lives in Altadena, has been helping his neighbors recover from the Eaton Fire while repairing his own Altadena home.
Institutional Knowledge.
Our lawyers are experts in bringing “inverse condemnation” cases against public utility companies. Homeowners can recover their attorneys’ and experts’ fees in inverse condemnation cases, but not in personal injury cases. Steve Blum and Gary Ho both represented Edison and other utility companies when they worked in top-tier “Big Law” (Irell & Manella, O’Melveny & Myers), so they understand how these institutions approach real estate disaster cases. This is why they have been hired by many judges, lawyers, and large corporations, in addition to individual homeowners.
PALISADES FIRE and EATON FIRE
Blum & Ho, LLP has actively investigated the source and devastation caused by the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire. It has filed an Eaton Fire lawsuit against Southern California Edison, and a Palisades Fire lawsuit against LADWP. Our attorneys are standing by to help any homeowners or business owners affected by the fires.
WOOLSEY AND THOMAS FIRE CASES
TOTAL LOSS CASES - Represented clients who lost their homes or multiple properties in the WOOLSEY and THOMAS FIRES.
SECURED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN COMPENSATION FOR CLIENTS - Including numerous $10 million plus settlements for individual clients.
PLAYED INSTRUMENTAL ROLE IN WINNING Court of Appeal decision that applied inverse condemnation liability to Edison in fire cases.
Meet the Team
We bring together the foremost real estate disaster litigators and experts.
Steven A. Blum
Partner
Yale Law School
blum@blumho.com
(310) 694-9584
Steven A. Blum is a pre-eminent California real estate litigator. He once represented Edison in some of its largest litigation but has more recently taken up arms against the giant utility. For decades he has sued and beaten the City of Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) in trials. His clients have included many other attorneys, judges, environmental groups, and Fortune 500 corporations.
Steve graduated from UCLA (summa cum laude) in 1984 and Yale Law School in 1987. Before starting Blum & Ho, he was a litigator at two of California’s top law firms (Irell & Manella and Heller Ehrman), routinely representing the largest and most sophisticated corporate clients in their real estate and business cases. Now he works for private homeowners. He has litigated complex matters like the Thomas Fire (including the Montecito debris flows, which he personally experienced), the Woolsey Fire (Malibu and Agoura) as well as real estate disasters like landslides throughout California, and he is now representing homeowners in the 2025 Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu fires.
Steve has had over 35 years’ experience in the obscure and specialized field of inverse condemnation, which is the leading legal theory used against public utilities like Edison and government agencies like DWP. He has also served as adjunct law professor teaching inverse condemnation and eminent domain at Loyola Law School.
Gary Ho
Partner
UC Berkeley School of Law
ho@blumho.com
(310) 694-9558
Mr. Ho has been a litigator for over 20 years and is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law. He practiced at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where he defended some of the largest business, real estate, and mass tort cases in the country.
As a partner of Blum, Collins & Ho LLP, Mr. Ho has represented many clients whose properties have been damaged as the result of landslides and floods. He has taken numerous landslide cases to trial against government agencies and other defendants. Mr. Ho has also successfully represented victims of the Woolsey Fire in cases against Southern California Edison.
Ilana Lohr-Schmidt
Attorney
NYU School of Law, J.D.
Stanford University, B.S. in Geological and Environmental Sciences
Michael R. Hambly
Attorney
Harvard Law School
Previously practiced at the firms of Irell & Manella, LLP, and Christensen, White, Miller, Fink & Jacobs (now Glaser Weil)
Vashon Simien
Attorney
USC Gould School of Law, J.D.
UCLA, B.A. in Linguistics
August Simien, Jr.
Fire Consultant
Fire Captain - Los Angeles Fire Department
Fire Inspector - Hazardous Material, Los Angeles Fire Department
California State Fire Instructor
