Elizabeth D. Rhodes
erhodes@wdlegal.net

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Columbia University in New York, New York, Elizabeth Rhodes had a 10-year career as a textbook editor prior to graduating from Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana. During law school, Ms. Rhodes was a practicing student attorney at the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, where she successfully advocated on behalf of a number of indigent clients seeking representation through the clinic program. Ms. Rhodes received her J.D. and a Certificate of Environmental Law in May 2000.

Ms. Rhodes has experience in the areas of civil, commercial, business and employment litigation, and appellate practice. She has worked defending insurance companies and their insureds for the last 10 years in all aspects of civil litigation, and during that time gained significant second chair trial experience in matters including but not limited to high value personal injury actions, insurance coverage disputes under the recent Crawford decision, workplace accidents in the construction context, and labor and employment claims. Prior to coming to Willis DePasquale, Ms. Rhodes gained substantial experience in the defense of airlines and municipalities in the context of injury accidents at airport facilities in California.

Ms. Rhodes was the primary research and writing attorney on the matter Seabright Insurance Co. v. U.S. Airways, Inc., In its August 2011 decision, the Supreme Court of California ruled in the defense's favor, and in so doing, extended the protections afforded under the Privette doctrine to companies sued under allegedly nondelegable duties set forth in Cal-OSHA regulations. The Privette doctrine, based on a 1993 Supreme Court decision, is essentialy that one who hires a contractor generally cannot be held liable to a contractor's employee for work-related injuries unless the hirer has concealed a pre-existing dangerous condition or engaged in some other form of affirmative misconduct that contributes to the employee's injury. In 2001, the Supreme Court further clarified the Privette doctrine in the multi-employer worksite context, holding that the hirer of an independant contractor is liable for a workplace injury of the contractor's employee only if the hirer retained control over the contractor's work and exercised that control so as to "affirmatively contribute" to the employee's workplace injury. (Hooker v. Department of Transportation (2002) 27 Cal.4th 198) in Seabright, the Supreme Court considered the Hooker analysis in the context of an injured worker of an independent contractor suing on a nondelegable duty theory. In that context, Seabright held that where a passive hirer retains no control over the work being undertaken by the contractor, the hirer "presumptively delegates any tort law duty of care the hirer had under Cal-OSHA safety regulations to ensure workplace safety of the independent contractor's employees."

Ms. Rhodes is admitted to practice in Washington and California state courts, and has substantial experience with federal practice before the United States District Court for the Northern and Central District of California.