Adeline Tungate is an attorney in the firm’s Orange County office and a member of the litigation practice group. Ms. Tungate’s practice focuses on commercial litigation, with an emphasis in finance, including mortgage lending and servicing, nonconventional lending, private money lending, and personal property financing.

Ms. Tungate specializes in resolving business disputes for a broad array of clients, including banks, lenders, loan servicers, private and non-conventional lenders, foreclosure trustees, investors, and financing companies. She routinely handles litigation matters related to state and federal consumer protection laws, including the California Homeowner Bill of Rights (HBOR), California’s Rosenthal Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), as well as a wide array of real property disputes.

She also routinely handles matters related to personal property financing, including enforcing and defending leasing and finance agreements. She has experience enforcing judgments, including through judgment liens, turnover orders, writs of possession, and writs of attachment.

Adeline is a trial lawyer and has experience zealously representing clients in state and federal court, including through appeal, and in the Supreme Court of California.

Awards and Honors

  •  Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine, 2024 & 2025

Professional Involvement

  • Orange County Bar Association
  • Obtained summary judgment in favor of loan servicer in defense of action by borrower involving claims for slander of title and violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law
  • Successfully obtained affirmance of judgment in favor of loan servicer and lender defending against borrower suit alleging California Homeowner Bill of Rights violations in Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Obtained summary judgment in breach of contract action in favor of personal property financing company against non-performing lessee
  • Obtained summary judgment in favor of private mortgage lender on claims involving California Civil Code Section 2924m
  • Obtained summary judgment in favor of loan servicer on claims involving the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights (HBOR), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA)
  • Obtained summary judgment in favor of private mortgage lender on wrongful foreclosure claim
  • Bench trial victory in favor of a lender/loan servicer in Santa Monica Superior Court in a case involving California’s Civil Code Section 2924m. Commencing in 2021, California’s non-judicial foreclosure laws relating to single family residences containing 1-4 units were amended to allow certain statutorily defined “eligible bidders” to “overbid” the winning bidder at the date of the sale, after the foreclosure sale is cried. The Court ruled in favor of the lender/loan servicer based upon the determination that the Plaintiff was not an “eligible bidder,” here, an LLC whose managing member’s primary activity was developing or preserving affordable rental housing).
  • Bench trial victory in favor of equipment finance lender in Orange County Superior Court case involving payoff dispute and out-of-state guarantor obligations.
  • Successfully argued in California Court of Appeals to affirm judgment in favor of finance company involving enforcement of equipment finance lease.

Ms. Tungate earned her J.D. from the University of California, Irvine School of Law and received her B.A. in History and French from the University of Kansas, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

  • United States District Court for the Northern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Southern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Central District of California
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • District of Columbia Court of Appeals