| Complex Commercial LitigationWe offer clients an experienced team that can handle cases of any size and complexity. Our team is based in offices across the country and has handled cases in more than 30 states, at all levels of state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
We work closely with our clients to devise the best strategy for their businesses, understanding that while at times litigation is unavoidable, it can distract management attention from other important pursuits. When you hire us to handle a case, your problem becomes our problem, and your goals become ours. We will discuss with you alternatives to the traditional hourly billing model including models in which our economic incentives are aligned. We staff cases leanly, with skilled attorneys who know your case, your business, your industry and your long-term objectives.
We are committed to learning our clients’ businesses and the industries in which they operate. We have experience in all areas of civil litigation, with a particular experience in the communications, media, health care, financial services and energy industries. We have unparalleled institutional knowledge that informs our work in these areas. We likewise have broad experience in large-scale litigation involving antitrust and consumer class action issues.
We know also that clients’ assessment of value involves much more than winning or losing. Clients expect their law firms to be cost-effective and collaborative, to communicate well and to represent them in a way that protects the company’s reputation and preserves important relationships. We focus on efficiency, goal alignment, transparency and accessibility, and we expect to be evaluated on our performance in those areas—including when we win. |
Selected Experience Getty Images Ongoing Manage litigation (or threatened litigation) in California, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and Virginia concerning allegations of breach of the right of publicity. Obtained dismissal of the most active case (involving a publicity claim by a young woman whose image appeared on the packaging for disposable cameras) on summary judgment. Providence Health System 2008 Represented large health system and its health plan in an antitrust case brought by two outpatient diagnostic imaging centers that were terminated from the plan in favor of two diagnostic imaging joint ventures formed by health system and community radiologists. The district court entered summary judgment for client after intense discovery. The 9th Circuit affirmed. Class of fishermen, processors, Alaska natives, landowners and businesses 2008 Court-appointed lead counsel for 30,000 plaintiffs represented by 60 law firms in the consolidated proceedings of more than 250 lawsuits, both class actions and direct actions, filed on behalf of fishermen, processors, Alaska natives, landowners, businesses, and others injured as a result of the spill of 11.8 million gallons of North Slope crude oil into the coastal waters of Alaska by the Exxon Valdez. A four-month jury trial resulted in a verdict awarding plaintiff clients $297 million compensatory damages and $5 billion punitive damages. The Seattle Times Company 2007 Defended the Seattle Times Company in litigation filed by the Hearst Corporation regarding the Joint Operating Agreement under which the Seattle Times Company published both the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The firm argued and won a unanimous Washington Supreme Court decision on the threshold issue of contract interpretation. (2005-2007) 2007 Defended class action filed in Oregon claiming that the hospital’s charges to the uninsured were too high. Case settled on favorable terms. Equilon Pipeline Company 2005 Defended Equilon in $500 million business interruption claim, criminal and regulatory proceedings arising out of the rupture of the Olympic pipeline in Bellingham, Wash. Washington Mutual (Long Beach Mortgage Company) 2005 Represented lender in individual action alleging, among other things, a failure to timely disclose yield-spread premium fees on the “good faith estimate” as required by federal law. Obtained summary judgment, which was affirmed on appeal. See Shields v. Morgan Financial, 130 Wn. App. 750, 125 P.3d 164 (2005). | |