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Tanya M. Schierling

Tanya M. Schierling
Managing Partner

(t) 619.231.0303
(f) 619.231.4755

You want a lawyer who is smart, strategic and efficient. A client facing a legal dispute needs sound guidance and effective representation in order to navigate the complex and often frustrating maze of litigation. I listen to you and hear your objectives. I ask the right questions and consider the details. I analyze the options and develop the most cost-effective strategy. I communicate with my clients. Then, trial-tested and with top-notch credentials, I aggressively advocate my client’s best interests.

Tanya Schierling represents a wide range of clients, from large public corporations to small start-up companies to individuals, with the wisdom forged from significant trial and arbitration experience. After graduating with honors from both Dartmouth College and George Washington University Law School, Ms. Schierling began her legal career as a military prosecutor serving in the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where she advised tank and infantry commanders and tried felony cases to courts-martial.

After four years in the military, she started in private practice in San Diego in 2000, joining Solomon Ward in 2003 and becoming a partner in 2006. She focuses on business litigation and employment matters, including partnership and corporate disputes, real estate litigation, labor code, wage, and discrimination and harassment claims, and distribution and franchise matters. In addition, Ms. Schierling advises businesses on a wide range of employment compliance matters, assisting her clients in avoiding or minimizing the risk of employment claims. In addition to her work as an attorney, Ms. Schierling is an avid cyclist, and enjoys hiking, running and gourmet cooking.

  • Representing a small start-up company facing bet-the-company compensation claims asserted by a former employee, Ms. Schierling litigated to a best-case scenario result that has allowed the company to survive and thrive, including obtaining virtually complete insurance coverage for defense fees and costs.
  • Representing a private equity lender in a suit to recover money and inventory from a borrower company and its founder, Ms. Schierling adopted an aggressive yet focused litigation approach that forced the opponents to the bargaining table. Ms. Schierling thus obtained the client’s principal business objectives while successfully fending off employment claims made against the client.
  • Ms. Schierling strategically and cost-effectively defended a real estate developer against multi-million dollar claims brought by business partners and private lenders, allowing the client to retain control over valuable properties and maximize the projects’ investment and development potential.
  • Ms. Schierling successfully fended off an attempt to pin individual liability on a private lender in a construction-related dispute.
  • Representing a construction company, Ms. Schierling positioned its defense in arbitration to obtain a highly favorable, nuisance-value settlement of a former executive’s compensation claims.
  • Ms. Schierling obtained a rare peremptory writ of mandate from the California Court of Appeal, achieving a reversal that resulted in a published opinion on a question of first impression in California and, ultimately, in a complete dismissal of all claims against her client, an Italian equipment manufacturer.
  • Ms. Schierling successfully negotiated to overcome several neighbors’ aggressive objections to a homeowner’s reconstruction plans.
  • Ms. Schierling prevailed in defending a national manufacturer and supplier against multi-million dollar wrongful termination claims made by one of its distributors.
  • Representing a public company, Ms. Schierling litigated in arbitration to a highly favorable final decision that minimized her client’s liability to a terminated distributor.
  • George Washington University National Law Center, cum laude, 1995
  • Dartmouth College, undergraduate degree in Government, cum laude, 1992
  • San Diego Business Journal’s Woman of Influence in Law, 2024
  • San Diego Business Journal’s Top 100 Leaders in Law Honoree, 2023
  • San Diego Business Journal’s Women of Influence in Law Honoree, 2023
  • San Diego Magazine’s Top Lawyers in San Diego® ­ Business Litigation, 2013, 2016, 2018 – 2022
  • Avvo® Top Rated Lawyer, 2022
  • San Diego Business Journal’s Leaders in Law Award Finalist, 2021
  • San Diego Business Journal’s Women of Influence 50 over 50 Honoree, 2021
  • Martindale­Hubbell AV Preeminent® Rated
  • The Daily Transcript’s Influential Women Award, 2019
  • San Diego Metro Magazine’s Best Attorney Award, 2018
  • AV Top Rated Lawyers® – Commercial and Business Litigation, 2013 and 2016
  • Woman Of the Year Award, Finalist, 2014
  • Finalist, San Diego Magazine Women Who Move the City, 2013
  • Avvo Very Good® Rated
  • Former Litigation Department Chair, Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith, LLP
  • Member of the California State Bar Association
  • Member of the Maryland State Bar Association
  • Member of the San Diego County Bar Association
  • Member of United States Supreme Court Bar Association
  • Treasurer, ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) San Diego Chapter, 2014-2019