Soft-spoken and bookish litigator Elizabeth Cabraser stood out from the cloud of alpha lawyers when made her low-key pitch to a federal judge as to why she should be selected to lead a massive consumer-fraud case against Volkswagen AG, reports The Wall Street Journal, via NASDAQ.

Her eloquence and focus on the clients contrasted with dozens of others who pitched the judge that day, bragging about their most recent newspaper awards, school credentials and trial prowess, the report says.

“U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer hours later named Ms. Cabraser to lead a team of 21 lawyers handling the plaintiffs’ cases, which consolidate more than 500 lawsuits. Volkswagen has admitted its diesel cars were installed with software meant to trick emissions tests and is working with regulators on a fix,” according to the report.

“The San Francisco Bay Area native has built a reputation for her encyclopedic knowledge of class-action law, effectiveness in oral arguments, and ability to diplomatically manage large cases, lawyers say.”

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Volkswagen has been given until March 24 to present an acceptable fix for bringing nearly 600,000 diesel cars into compliance with clean air laws, reports DW Akademie.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer told the car maker at a court hearing in San Francisco on Thursday that he has a “sense of urgency” about seeing a resolution.

The company has already admitted to using software that covers up the fact that some of their cars emit up to 40 times legally allowable emissions in vehicles sold since 2009.

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