Peter Burfening Jr., Managing Partner of WSHB’s San Diego office, is a highly respected attorney whose practice spans transportation law, environmental and toxic tort litigation, habitability, general liability, employment law, professional liability, product liability, and automotive law. Peter routinely handles the defense of personal injury litigation, including catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases; employment litigation, including wrongful termination, whistleblower, and harassment claims; and professional liability litigation, including the defense of insurance agents and brokers, real estate agents and brokers, accountants, attorneys, directors and officers, design professionals, and healthcare professionals.
His transportation clients include both insurers and private fleet operators. He has significant experience handling the defense of transportation cases involving catastrophic injuries, including wrongful death, amputation, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and complex regional pain syndrome claims. Peter also provides rapid response handling of transportation accidents for both insurers and private fleet operators, and provides risk management training, counseling, and seminars on many topics, including driver qualifications, safe practices, current trends in transportation, and catastrophic injuries.
Peter routinely consults for the insurance industry to assist with investigations of first- and third-party environmental claims. He has served as National Monitoring Counsel for several major insurance companies, handling mass tort environmental claims throughout the United States.
His professional liability clients include independent and direct agents and brokers, large and small agencies and brokerage firms, accounting firms, attorneys, and boards of directors. Recently, he successfully defended a C.P.A. firm against allegations of failing to uncover a multi-million-dollar embezzlement by a corporation’s controller.
Newsroom
News
•Peter Burfening Jr. Named Managing Partner of WSHB San Diego Office
Firm News, 2.10.26
•Four Attorneys Elected to Partnership
Newsroom, 12.11.12
Events, Seminars & Speaking Engagements
•Fair Claims and Preservation of Evidence in Trucking Cases (2017)
•Laws & Trends in the Trucking Industry (2017)
•Personal Injury - Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (2017)
•California - A Judicial Hellhole (2016)
Publications
•California Court Affirms Summary Judgment for Transit Agency After Bus Fall: A Fall on a Public Bus Doesn't Automatically Equal Negligence
Article, 1.31.26
•Court Upholds Jury's Award for Future Lost Earnings and Non-Economic Damages While Reinforcing Limits on Past Medical Expenses
Case Updates, 2.25.25
In the News
•Peter Burfening Jr. Named Managing Partner of WSHB San Diego Office
•California Court Affirms Summary Judgment for Transit Agency After Bus Fall: A Fall on a Public Bus Doesn't Automatically Equal Negligence
•Court Upholds Jury's Award for Future Lost Earnings and Non-Economic Damages While Reinforcing Limits on Past Medical Expenses
•Defense Verdict: Jury Rejects $10.5 Million Demand + Punitive Damages in Complex Commercial Tenancy Action
