Appellate

Appeals present a set of considerations distinction from litigation before trial courts. Our attorneys understand those considerations, while combining the perspective of a trial lawyer’s ability to review and understand the record before the trial court. Our attorneys have experience with appeals in state and federal court, both defending the result obtained from the trial court and seeking to overturn the result obtained from the trial court. Although our appellate practice focuses on appeals involving our core practice areas (trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, partnership and startup disputes, and class actions), we also handle appeals involving general commercial litigation and other practice areas. Our appellate practice deploys the exceptional brief writing and focus on the issues that ultimately matter to craft persuasive appellate briefs.

Class Action Defense

Class actions present companies with challenges beyond what they confront in other litigation, ranging from the public relations issues that can accompany class actions to the potential for class scale liability. Our attorneys understand how to craft a strategy to defend against a putative class action that not only recognizes those challenges, but also integrates how our clients need to respond to them from a business perspective. Crafting and implementing an effective strategy requires an understanding of the unique procedural and litigation dynamics that class actions present and how to maximize them for our clients’ benefit.

Our attorneys understand the unique procedural and litigation dynamics of class actions because they have broad based experience defending against class actions asserting a multitude of claims, including false advertising, product defects, wage and hour violations, and consumer protection law violations. This experience extends to a variety of industries, including retailers, automakers, and consumer electronics manufacturers. This broad array of experience provides our attorneys with the depth of experience to handle the unique procedural and litigation dynamics of class actions in a manner that focuses on our clients’ objectives.

Copyright & Trademark

Our attorneys have litigated copyright cases involving copyrights in musical works, including compositions and recordings; film, television, and dramatic works; literary works; and photography, on behalf of film studios, producers, writers and artists. We have expertise in issues of copyright infringement; derivative works; licensing, assignment, and transfer of copyright; notice and registration issues; fair use and other copyright defenses; and copyright remedies. In addition, we have extensive experience in related areas of the law, such as cases involving rights of publicity, privacy, and idea submission.

Our trademark litigation practice encompasses Lanham Act violations, trademark infringement and dilution, unfair competition, false advertising, antitrust issues, domain name cases under the Anti-Cybersquatting Act, and other disputes involving trademark rights. We have represented clients in diverse industries, from motion pictures and television to manufacturers and distributors, in district courts, arbitration, and mediation.

Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Disputes

Unique among litigation law firms, our firm specializes in disputes involving cryptocurrency and blockchain companies and founders. Although the industry is in its nascent stage, our attorneys have handled numerous disputes relating to cryptocurrency, blockchain, and ICOs, and draw on extensive experience and familiarity with this emerging area.

Investment and Securities Litigation

Our attorneys have represented a wide array of clients in connection with investment and securities claims, including issuers, brokers, advisors, as well as individual and institutional investors. We have litigated claims in court, arbitration, before the Financial Industry and Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and interfaced with representatives of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our investment and securities practices encompasses securities and improper broker and advisor conduct claims, SEC investigations, unsuitable investment claims, breach of fiduciary duty claims, investor negligence and malpractice claims, and state and federal securities fraud and unlicensed broker claims.

General Commercial Litigation

Our attorneys have represented clients in a wide variety of general commercial disputes, including fraud, breach of contract, and business tort lawsuits. We have handled these types of disputes for businesses ranging from manufacturers and distributors to real estate developers and investors. Our attorneys understand how to craft a case strategy that brings to bear exceptional advocacy to all manner of business types and claims. Our attorneys also understand how to handle commercial litigation that is a stand-alone issue for our clients as well as commercial litigation that involves complex commercial litigation, such as antitrust, intellectual property disputes, and product liability issues.

Partnership & Startup Disputes

Our attorneys have litigated partnership and startup disputes in a wide variety of industries, including high-tech and computer startups, entertainment companies, manufacturing concerns, aviation, healthcare, finance and investment concerns, and real estate ventures. We have expertise in the partnership law of California, Delaware, and other jurisdictions, and the various issues that arise in partnership and startup disputes, including issues relating to contract disputes, the duties of fiduciaries to one another, dissolution and winding up, accounting, rescission, and valuation of partnership interests.

Trade Secrets

Trade secrets protection extends to a wide array of confidential information and inventions that may fall short of patent or copyright protection, or which a company may choose to not copyright or patent for strategic reasons, including formulas, programs, compilations of information, programs, methods and processes, business strategies, and customer information. Our attorneys have represented plaintiffs and defendants in trade secrets disputes cases involving the California Uniform Trade Secret Act (“CUTSA”) and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”), and related statutes, such as the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) and its California counterpart, and related criminal statutes, in state in federal court—including several trials. We have a wealth of experience with the particular issues that arise in trade secrets case, such as pleading issues relating to CUTSA preemption, identification of trade secrets, protecting trade secrets in litigation, proving and disproving claims of misappropriation, defenses to trade secrets claims, employee mobility issues, proving or disproving misappropriation and reasonable efforts to keep proprietary information confidential, and trade secrets remedies.