Alicia Garcia, Esq.
ALICIA GARCIA grew up in Los Angeles, California and holds a B.A. in Communications from California State University Northridge. She graduated from Stanford Law School in 1990 and went to work with CBS Television in Los Angeles. After living and working in Southern California for most of her life, she decided that she wanted to make a life and raise a family somewhere outside of urban L.A. She then spent several months living in London and, upon her returned to the United States, spent three months on a coast-to-coast road trip in search of the ideal place to live. She found the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota and in the spring of 1994, Alicia packed up and moved. That summer she passed the South Dakota Bar examination and in 1995 began her legal practice with the Abourezk & Garcia Law Firm in Rapid City, SD.
Alicia soon joined the KOTA Territory Television news team and, in addition to practicing law, anchors the KOTA News at 10:00 p.m. She also produces KOTA’s Consumer Report, which airs three times a week. She loves discovering, uncovering and delivering the news to the Black Hills region and her legal experience provides a basis for reporting on issues that are especially useful to consumers.
Most of Alicia’s legal practice involves representing plaintiffs in cases of insurance bad faith and corporate fraud, as well personal injury as a result of negligence and/or medical malpractice. She and Mike Abourezk have presented many seminars on insurance bad faith to attorneys around the country. In 2009 the South Dakota Trial Lawyers Association presented them with the “Toast of the Trial Lawyers Award” for their pro bono work to secure insurance payments denied to patients for high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant treatment.
In 2006 Alicia Garcia’s story of success as both a trial lawyer and television anchorwoman was the subject of a feature article, “Two Careers, Four Kids and a New Life in the Black Hills” in Lawyers Weekly. Alicia loves to travel, particularly to Costa Rica, where her family originated, and enjoys participation in the Black Hills Community Theatre. She is the proud mother of two sons and two daughters.
