Affiliations

• Consumer Financial Services Committee, Business Law Section, State Bar of California, 2012 - present
• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Board of Governors)
• Green Beret Foundation (Advisory Board, Pro bono General Counsel)
   

Representative Engagements

Lending

Credit Card

• Represented several issuers in class actions, state Attorney General cases and regulatory investigations concerning debt suspension and other fee products.
• Favorably settled numerous simultaneous class actions brought against major credit card issuer alleging inadequate disclosure of foreign currency conversion practices. Obtained final approval of class settlement over numerous objections including several brought by major plaintiffs’ class action firms who had competing cases.
• Favorably settled class actions against issuers alleging damages based on use of cut-off time for crediting payments by mail. One of the cases, Boehr v. Discover Bank, settled after plaintiff was compelled to arbitrate on an individual basis after years of highly publicized arbitration appeals, and Discover prevailed at the arbitration hearing.
• Represented major credit card issuer in putative class action alleging improper expiration of frequent flyer miles. Obtained summary adjudication of principal claim and then defeated motion for attorneys’ fees after remaining claims were voluntarily dismissed.
• Favorably settled class action alleging inadequate disclosure of interest compounding practices.
• Favorably settled numerous separate class actions seeking to invalidate credit card debt incurred through Internet or other gambling activities.
• Other successful credit card representations include class actions challenging termination of card reward benefits, gift card expiration practices, convenience and balance transfer check disclosures, call recording practices and customer privacy practices.

Residential Mortgage

• Numerous representations of large banks in disputes with other banks or investors over mortgage servicing transfers, indemnification obligations and securitization issues.
• Favorably settled several separate class actions against large financial institutions alleging systematic misadjustment of adjustable interest rates.
• Successfully defended regional bank in putative class action challenging propriety of prepayment penalties.
• Successfully represented national mortgage lenders in class actions and individual cases challenging the lenders’ entitlement to earthquake insurance proceeds. One case resulted in a key published opinion on the issue, JEM Enterprises v. Washington Mutual Bank, 99 Cal. App. 4th 638 (2002).

Commercial Mortgage

• Obtained published opinion in Weiss v. Washington Mutual Bank, 147 Cal. App. 4th 72 (2007), confirming that the Home Owners’ Loan Act and related regulations preempted plaintiffs’ challenge to certain prepayment penalties.
• Successfully defended national commercial bank against RICO and other claims arising out of dispute between partners in commercial redevelopment project financed by the bank.
• Other successful representations include enforcement of commercial loans and related guaranties, disputes between syndicated loan participants and agent bank, and various lender liability claims.

Specialty Finance

• Successfully defended or settled multiple usury class actions brought against purchasers of future credit card receivables.
• Favorably settled class action challenging specialty finance company’s alleged failure to comply with California statutory requirements.
• Favorably settled class action against specialty finance firm challenging marketing of ATM lease financing.

Real Estate

• Prevailed after two trials and multiple appeals in declaratory relief action brought by bank landlord against law firm tenant that claimed waiver of significant market-rent increase; bank recovered 100% of relief it sought and all of its attorneys’ fees and costs before reaching settlement.
• Multiple representations of developers in disputes over development fees and profit participations, including multi-million dollar recovery in 2012 for publicly traded real estate developer.
• Multiple representations of buyers and sellers of commercial real estate in disputes ranging from breach of purchase agreements to whether broker commissions were owed.

Investor and Broker-Dealer Clients

• Multiple successful representations of large financial institutions sued together with the actual wrongdoers in investment fraud cases.
• Multiple successful representations of private equity firms and their principals in cases brought against directors and shareholders arising out of portfolio company activities.
• Multiple successful representations of private equity firm portfolio companies in "bet the company" cases ranging from a claim that a company’s sole product violated applicable building codes to class actions alleging that the company’s principal business is prohibited by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
• Successfully defended arbitration against investment firm arising out of payment of referral fees to unlicensed individual.
• Successfully defended arbitration against large broker-dealer and broker alleging churning of extremely large municipal bond portfolio.

Intellectual Property

• Successfully represented aerospace manufacturer who discovered that former employee had copied voluminous product data onto thumb drive before taking job with competitor. Obtained temporary, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief preventing any use of the data; court made criminal referral after six-week jury trial based on defendants’ destruction of evidence.
• Represented multiple clients in different industries in trademark infringement actions, employee raiding cases, licensing matters and Internet domain name disputes.

Antitrust, Advertising, Contract and Sports

• Successfully defended large REIT against antitrust claims including allegation that it conditioned lease opportunities at one mall on agreement to lease at another. Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed before preliminary injunction hearing in response to demand letter accompanying opposition papers.
• Numerous successful representations in class and representative actions alleging false or misleading advertising of a wide variety of products and services.
• Represented major utility in partnership dispute arising out of unsuccessful power plant project.
• Numerous successful representations of clients in a wide variety of commercial contract disputes.
• Represented National Hockey League club in grievance against another club arising out of representations made prior to player trade.

Presentations

• Speaker, “Federal Mortgage Reform: Regulatory and Litigation Update," California State Bar Business Law Section Webinar (April 25, 2013)
• Conference Co-Chair and Speaker, “Defending Against New and Emerging Claims Relating to Student Loans, Credit, Debt and Prepaid Cards, Add-On Services and Products, and Auto Loans,” American Conference Institute’s 15th National Conference on Consumer Finance Class Actions and Litigation, New York, NY (January 31-February 1, 2013)
• Speaker, “Arbitration of Consumer Finance Disputes in the Wake of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion,” American Conference Institute’s 14th National Conference on Consumer Finance Class Actions and Litigation, Chicago, IL (July 30, 2012)
• Speaker, “Emerging Payment Models and Related Litigation,” PLI's 17th Annual Consumer Financial Services Institute, Chicago, IL (April 9-10, 2012)
• Speaker, “Class Action Strategy Session: How Wal-Mart and Concepcion Affect Class Defense, and Winning Defense Tactics for Removal, Counterclaims, Dispositive Motions & Settlement,” American Conference Institute’s 13th National Conference on Consumer Finance Class Actions & Litigation, New York, NY (January 26, 2012)
• Speaker, “Class Actions and Arbitration: Developments in the United States and Canada,” CLE BC Advanced Arbitration Law Conference, Vancouver, BC (May 1, 2009)
• Speaker, “Key Consumer Litigation Issues Before the U.S. and State Supreme Courts,” Business Roundtable Conference, Los Angeles, CA (November 6, 2008)
• Speaker, “The Subprime Mortgage Crisis: What It Means for Student Lending,” National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs Conference, San Francisco, CA (April 1, 2008)

Publications

• Co-Author, “Ninth Circuit Punts in Kilgore, Continuing Uncertainty on Arbitration,” One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (April 15, 2013)
• Co-Author, “Supreme Court Eliminates Major Obstacle To CAFA Removal,”One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (March 20, 2013)
• Co-Author, “CFPB Pursuing ECOA Claims Against Auto Lenders Based on Dealer Conduct,” One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (February 27, 2013)
• Co-Author, “California Court Holds That Certain Unconscionability Theories Survive Concepcion,” One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (February 12, 2013)
• Co-Author, “California Class Certification Ruling Offers Hope On Ascertainability,” One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (January 30, 2013)
•   Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Sides With Plaintiffs On Key 17200 Statute of Limitations Issue,” One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (January 29, 2013)
• Co-Author, “California Court Holds That Omission of Trustee Does Not Preclude Nonjudicial Foreclosure,” One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (December 4, 2012)
• Co-Author, “FCC Rules That Opt-Out Confirmation Texts Do Not Violate the TCPA,”  One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (December 4, 2012)
• Co-Author, “California Court Adopts New Theory In Trying To Save Gentry,” One Minute Memo , Seyfarth Shaw LLP (November 30, 2012)
• Co-Author, “CFPB Report Suggests Future Trends In Student Loan Litigation,”One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (October 18, 2012)
• Co-author, “California Decision Highlights Risk Of Using Generic Choice-of-Law Clause In Agreements Requiring Arbitration,” One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (October 15, 2012) 
• Co-Author, “Second Circuit Decision Underscores Risk Of Aggressive Settlement Class Notice Programs,” One Minute Memo , Seyfarth Shaw LLP (August 22, 2012)
• Co-Author, “Gentry Survives For Now, But Are Its Days Numbered?,” One Minute Memo, Seyfarth Shaw LLP (August 2012)
• "Sued for seeking a ZIP Code?" SFGate/The San Francisco Chronicle (April 8, 2009)
• "Zip Codes and Retail Etiquette," Retailing Today (March 30, 2009)
• "A Return to the 1980s? Lenders Beware," The Banking Law Journal (January 2009)