James M. Pearl
Partner
James Bo Pearl is a partner in O'Melveny's Century City office and a member of the Business Trial and Litigation and Antitrust and Competition Practices. He was recognized in 2010 as a Top 10 Competition Attorney Under 40 by
Law360. Bo focuses on antitrust, entertainment, intellectual property, and general business litigation.
Representative Clients
Advanced Micro Devices, Warner Bros., Hasbro, WalMart, Barnes & Noble, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Agrium, MGM
2011
- Won summary judgment for defendant in $40 million fraud, trade secret, and trademark action against leading water product manufacturer
- Obtained $450 million settlement for aviation client in contractual dispute
- Obtained $67 million settlement for manufacturer in contractual dispute
- Obtained $8 million settlement for manufacturer in distributor termination and copyright infringement suit
- Obtained full dismissal of antitrust claims versus leading airplane parts manufacturer on motion to dismiss
Illustrative Professional Experience
- Represented Advanced Micro Devices in worldwide monopolization suit against Intel and related worldwide and domestic regulatory investigations and in November 2009, obtained $1.25 billion settlement and wide-ranging injunctive relief. The historic settlement was one of the largest single plaintiff recoveries ever reported
- The settlement capped a series of litigation and regulatory wins around the world:
- In May 2009, the European Commission issued a US$1.4 billion fine against Intel for its violations of Europe’s competition laws, the largest fine ever issued by the European Commission
- In 2008, the Korea Fair Trade Commission issued a US$25 million fine against Intel for its violations of Korea’s competition laws
- In 2005, the Japan Fair Trade Commission found that Intel violated Japan’s competition laws; Intel did not contest the findings and agreed to an injunction
- Led two-year investigation into Intel document retention practices
- Representing motion picture studio in idea submission case
- Representing leading software provider in trade secret and antitrust action
- Representing multinational agricultural manufacturer in worldwide antitrust action
- Represented leading seller of discount show tickets in Las Vegas in Section 2 Sherman Act action
- Represented client in federal robbery case in Orange County and obtained below-guideline sentence
- Represented a "Big Four" accounting firm and led briefing team of several major law firms and achieved dismissal of US$500 million corporate fraud suit at the pleading stage
- Represented a "Big Four" accounting firm in special purpose entities suit brought by a major moving and storage company
- Represented a casino in shareholder securities suits and obtained three dismissals at the pleading stage
- Represented a motion picture studio in price fixing and price discrimination suit brought against seven movie studios regarding revenue sharing in the home video industry
- Represented a computer hardware company in its injunction against "knock-off" products
- Represented several recording artists in litigation regarding intellectual property
Trial Experience
- First-chaired three multi-week jury trials
- Second-chaired two-week bench trial of criminal defendant wrongly accused of felony gun possession; won full acquittal in bench trial
- Represented a major bookstore chain in antitrust suit brought regarding allegedly discriminatory pricing from publishers and achieved settlement after two weeks of trial that was labeled by the national press as a "complete surrender" by the plaintiffs
- Represented 14-year-old Salvadoran child in oral argument at Ninth Circuit and obtained new trial and successful reversal of deportation order
Prior to joining the Firm, Bo was a White House intern and also worked for Former Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown, Jr.
Professional Activities
Awards, Named a Top 10 Competition Attorney Under 40 by
Law360 (2010); Named a "Rising Star" in a survey conducted by Law & Politics Media Inc. and published in
Los Angeles Magazine (2008, 2009, 2010)
Speaker, "Dominating the World: How Monopolists Face an Increasingly Uncertain Fate in the Courts and Before Global Regulators" (Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy, March 2010); "AMD v. Intel: A Case Study" (UCLA Law, November 2009)
Co-Author, "Survival of the Fittest - Aspen Skiing,"
Law360 (April 2011); "Evidence Preservation Warfare; Ediscovery Lessons Learned from AMD v. Intel,"
ACC Docket (September 2010); "Pricing Conduct Beyond The Safe Harbor,"
Law360 (July 2010); "Breaking Down Borders: The Power of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30 to Compel the Deposition of a Corporate Party's Foreign Employee,"
Bloomberg Law Reports (July 19, 2010); "Be Nice, Now, Be Nice,"
Corporate Counsel (May 2010)
Member, American Bar Association, Antitrust and Litigation Sections; California State Bar, Antitrust Section