Kimberly S. Oberrecht

Partner

📞 619-232-1183 📠 619-696-5719 📧 koberrecht@hortonfirm.com

KIMBERLY S. OBERRECHT is from the Pacific Northwest having grown up in Tacoma, Washington. She graduated from the University of Washington in 1994 with a B.A. in Business Administration. She received her law degree in 1997 from California Western School of Law and was admitted to the California Bar in 1997.

Kim is a fearless trial attorney with 25 years specializing in personal injury defense. Kim’s practice is devoted solely to defense work. She is hired by multiple large insurance companies and private self-insured businesses to handle and take to trial complex liability and damages cases. Kim regularly defends clients in cases involving commercial auto and trucking, personal auto, construction site accidents, commercial premises liability, and products liability. She is skilled in defending and limiting damages in wrongful death, catastrophic injury, traumatic brain injury, amputation, and spinal or orthopedic injury cases. She has tried cases across California, including San Diego, El Centro, Orange County, San Bernardino, Riverside, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Visalia, and San Jose.

Kim has tried over 50 jury trials to verdict on her own across California with outstanding results. She has obtained dozens of defense verdicts on liability cases involving wrongful death, amputation, traumatic brain injury, and other catastrophic injuries. She has also obtained multiple low verdicts on admitted liability cases with traumatic brain injury or spinal surgery. Kim is often sought out to “parachute” in to a case for trial when asked by her clients to jump in and take over. Kim is known for her confident, efficient, and extremely effective trial skills and style, with jurors often giving her nicknames at the end of trial. She has been called a “firecracker” and a “commander” due to her assertive, but always professional presentation in the courtroom. She has an uncanny ability to keep the jury engaged and wanting to hear more.

Due to her success as a trial attorney, Kim has gained quite a reputation with the plaintiff’s bar. She has tried and won cases against many of the best plaintiff’s attorneys in the state, and because of that, has gained respect and a good working relationship that helps resolve cases that others might not be able to. She has been said to be a force to be reckoned with. Kim’s kindness and ability to work with everyone is well known and she has earned the respect of her peers on both sides of a case for this.

Kim was inducted in 2022 as a Fellow in ACTL (American College of Trial Lawyers), which is an invitation only honor for those who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality. Fellowship in the ACTL cannot exceed 1% of the total lawyer population in each state.

Kim is also an Advocate in ABOTA (American Board of Trial Advocates), having tried over 50 jury trials to achieve this level. Kim gained notoriety in 2017 when she obtained a defense verdict in a nationally covered case involving Petco, where a 10 year old boy died after contracting rat bite fever from a rat purchased from Petco. The opening statements for this trial were televised and the case received significant media attention. Kim was thereafter named Defense Lawyer of the Year by SDDL (San Diego Defense Lawyers) in 2017. She has also been listed as a SuperLawyer from 2013 to the present.

Not only is Kim a full time defense attorney, but she is a devoted mom of two teenage boys. When she is not in trial, she enjoys cooking and makes a point of being home to make dinner with her boys. She enjoys walking and hiking with her dogs and traveling whenever she can. Her family calls her Superwoman.