Donna Tobar

Overview

Ms. Donna Tobar provides a full range of litigation and counseling services in the areas of construction, suretyship, and government contracting. She has successfully represented clients in various legal settings, including litigation (state and federal), mediation, arbitration, and various informal settings (including counseling services during contract performance).

Ms. Tobar has prepared, advocated, and successfully resolved a large variety of complex claims and legal issues. Representative claims and issues that she has handled for construction matters include, but are not limited to: total cost and modified total cost claims, productivity/inefficiency claims, delay claims, change order claims, differing site condition claims, claims for defective workmanship, claims for defective design, claims for negligence against design professionals and subcontractors, contract compliance on live construction projects, pass-through claims, termination, insurance coverage, labor audits, and reviews, stop notice claims, mechanic’s lien claims, and False Claims Act claims. Ms. Tobar has handled disputes on federal, public works, industrial, commercial, and residential projects.  Ms. Tobar has substantial expertise in successfully pursuing and resolving claims on public works projects, including underground construction and school projects.

Ms. Tobar has substantial experience successfully handling all aspects of surety-specific matters from the time that an account first goes into “claims” through the final resolution of all bond claims and indemnity issues. As such, she has had over 20 years of experience handling performance bond claims (with a heavy focus on pursuing affirmative claims against bond obliges), takeover efforts by sureties (including contract negotiation and project oversight), indemnity transactions and litigation, payment bond claims, bad faith claims, setting and adjusting reserves, and surety financing.

General

PRACTICE AREAS

• – Construction
• – Government Contracts
• – Surety

Education

Professional

BAR AFFILIATIONS

• – State Bar of California
• – State Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit
• – State Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
• – California Supreme Court
• – State District Court for the Eastern, Central, Northern and Southern Districts of California
• – Court of Federal Claims
• – American Bar Association

Notable

EXPERIENCE

• – Obtained eight-figure settlement of extensive and complex affirmative claims against public works owner, including recovering claims based upon delay, productivity and differing site conditions and defeating owner’s False Claims Act, delay and other counterclaims.
• – Successfully obtained a seven-figure arbitration award against public works owner for delays, change orders and home office overhead and defeating the owner’s seven-figure counterclaims.
• – Drafted appellate papers for the prevailing party in The H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation v. Perez (2013) 218 Cal.App.4th 37 wherein the court rejected the foreclosing lender’s argument that it was a third-party beneficiary under the subdivision bond and determined that the third party had no right to assert claims against the subdivision bond.
• – Obtained eight-figure settlement for surety client in complex, multi-party dispute on public project involving extensive damages and defects, breach of contract claims and tort-based claims against contractors and design professionals.
• – Successfully defeated a performance bond claim at the pleading stage based upon proper notice and opportunity to cure.
• – Negotiated a dismissal with prejudice at the pleading state in dispute regarding sufficiency of investigation.
• – Successfully resolved numerous payment bond claims on various projects.
• – Drafted and negotiated numerous takeover, tender and ratification agreements in connection with performance bond claims.
• – Drafted and negotiated numerous pass-through agreements and obtained settlements of numerous pass through claims.
• – Defended against change order and delay claims against a developer and defeated roughly $3 million in claims by general contractor.
• – Successfully defeated motions for judgment against appellate bond surety.
• – Negotiated to obtain a termination for convenience on a troubled public works project, saving the client millions of dollars.
• – Managed multi-project defaults on accounts involving dozens of bonded projects, including handling of payment and performance bond claims, assisting with setting reserves and indemnity.
• – Provided legal counsel to address contract compliance and claim preservation on numerous live construction projects.
• – Active involvement in development and prosecution of all types of construction related claims on public, federal and private projects.
• – Counseled client on government procurement and surety indemnity in international market for multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project.