Practice Areas

Antitrust / Unfair Competition

Our attorneys have handled many unfair competition and antitrust matters which have included cases based on allegations of violations of the California Cartwright Act, The Federal Sherman and Clayton Acts, and California Unfair Completion Act (Business and Professions Code §17200 et seq.), and false advertising (Business and Professions Code § 17500 et seq.) We have tried a number of such cases to verdict and have also served as local counsel for regional and national law firms who require our assistance in local litigation.

Appellate

The Firm has extensive experience in state and federal appellate courts manifest in over 50 appellate opinions in a variety of areas of law including:

• A landmark decision relating to the standard applicable in the state courts to motions for summary judgment (Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 25 Cal. 4th 826 (2001))
• The leading decision regarding the finality of stipulated judgments for purposes of triggering the statute of limitations under California Civil Procedure Code Section 337.5 (The Cadle Company II, Inc. v. Sundance Financial, Inc., 154 Cal. App. 4th 622 (2007))
• A leading decision expanding the protections afforded under the anti-SLAPP statute (Tuscher Development Enterprises, Inc. v. San Diego Unified Port District, 106 Cal. App. 4th 1219 (2003))
• A leading decision in trademark litigation (Playboy Enterprises v. Welles, 279 F.3d 796 (9th Cir. 2002))
• A decision outlining the requirement of a “favorable determination on the merits” as a prerequisite to a malicious prosecution action (Ferreira v. Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, 87 Cal. App. 4th 409 (2001))
• A decision on the scope of discovery in trade secret litigation in federal courts (Computer Economics v. Gartner Group, Inc., 50 F. Supp. 2d 980 (C.D. Cal. 1999))
• A leading decision in attorney malpractice litigation relating to the statute of limitations and the availability of equitable indemnity (Crouse v. Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, 67 Cal. App. 4th 1509 (1998))

Class Actions

The Firm is among the most experienced class action litigation firms in San Diego. We have handled many state and federal class action matters, Business and Professions Code section 17200 matters, and multi-district litigation. Our experience in this area covers almost the entire spectrum of our practice areas including antitrust/unfair competition, false advertising, banking, securities fraud, product liability, and employment wage and hour litigation.

Commercial Litigation

Our attorneys are among the most experienced commercial litigators in San Diego, have handled a wide range of cases in state and federal court, as well as in arbitration. No matter the business, we can help resolve your case.

Contract Disputes

A large portion of the Firm’s litigation experience involves contract disputes, in a diverse range of business contexts, including the banking industry, real estate transactions, commercial disputes, franchise disputes and securities and investment disputes. We also have the expertise to formulate advantageous business solutions to contract litigation disputes.

Employment Law / Wrongful Termination

The Firm’s experience in wrongful termination litigation has followed the proliferation of such cases in our court system (at one point nearly half of the new case filings in San Diego Superior Court were employment disputes). The Firm has handled virtually all areas of employment litigation including discrimination cases involving race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and national origin, “public policy” wrongful termination cases involving a wide variety of issues of public importance in many industries, and wage and hour class action litigation. Many of our Firm members have tried employment cases to verdict.

Intellectual Property

We have handled intellectual property, trademark and trade secret litigation and trials for over 25 years, and we are thoroughly familiar with the substantive and procedural issues involved in such litigation. As a result, substantial clients, including Fortune 500 companies, hire us to pursue their positions in intellectual property, patent, trademark and trade secret litigation.

Libel/Defamation

As an experienced litigation firm, we frequently handle a variety of business tort litigation, including defamation, libel and slander matters and have tried such cases many times.

Personal Injury/Wrongful Death

Our attorneys have extensive experience in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death litigation. Many of those cases have arisen in the product liability context. We have tried many cases to verdict and obtained substantial judgments and settlements for our clients.

Products Liability

We have handled product liability litigation in many industries and contexts. We understand the unique issues of law present in product liability litigation, and equally significantly, the strategic concerns in dealing with expert witnesses, proprietary and trade secret issues of our clients, and the important considerations for handling and structuring resolution of these cases if they are not tried.

Professional Negligence

We have frequently been called upon to represent our clients in professional negligence and errors and omissions litigation. We have represented a great number of local, regional and national accounting firms, law firms, real estate brokers and other professionals in such litigation. We understand the unique considerations that need to be analyzed to determine whether such actions should proceed to trial, including juror attitudes toward professionals and the professional and personal impact of such costs on our clients.

Real Estate

The real estate industry has been an important component of the San Diego economy for many years and certainly since the Firm’s inception. A large portion of our litigation experience has been or included real property litigation and disputes. The Firm draws from its extensive experience in real estate property law issues in handling such matters, and the Firm’s members are extensively involved in Bar activities and write articles on real property matters frequently. In addition, our knowledge of local real property issues is often invaluable for our clients. We represent developers, contractors, real estate brokers, land speculators, banks, mortgage companies, landlords and commercial tenants.