Newport Beach

Whether facing a national or international commercial dispute, charges from a governmental agency, or a single-plaintiff suit with broad implications, prominent clients entrust their largest and most sensitive matters to O’Melveny. Recently, O'Melveny achieved a major victory for surfwear pioneer Quiksilver, Inc. in a federal trademark infringement action. The victory in court followed six years of heavily contested litigation, including two jury trials and an appeal to the Ninth Circuit. The case involved Quiksilver's effort to restrict defendant Kymsta Corp.'s use of the "Roxywear" mark to sell women's clothing. Quiksilver claimed that Kymsta's use of its "Roxywear" mark infringed Quiksilver's federally registered ROXY trademark and constituted a false designation of origin. Kymsta counterclaimed against Quiksilver for false designation of origin, claiming that it had used "Roxywear" prior to Quiksilver's first use of ROXY. The final verdict of 2008 determined that "Roxy" is a valid and protected trademark owned by Quiksilver, and that Quiksilver has the unfettered right to use its ROXY trademark. The court went on to enjoin Kymsta from any future use of the "Roxywear" trademark, subject to an 18 month phase-out period during which Kymsta must phase out all usage, while refraining from any expansion, licensing, or sale of the mark.

In defending clients against putative class actions, we have successfully challenged claims at the pleading stage, repeatedly secured either outright dismissals of class allegations or favorable settlements under the immediate threat of dismissals, and achieved victories at trial.  Recently, for client Ford Motor Company we employed creative pre-trial motion strategies to successfully dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit.  Following the court's removal order to Federal Court from California State Court, we were able to successfuly defend remand.  The trial court dismissed the plaintiff's Third Amended Complaint for failing to meet the heightened pleading standards and the Ninth Circuit affirmed on those grounds.  

We represent issuers and underwriters in public offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities, including initial and secondary public offerings, PIPE transactions and venture capital financings, as well as tender offers for outstanding securities.  We advise numerous public companies on securities reporting and disclosure requirements, corporate governance matters, including compliance with NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange requirements, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  We also assist companies with board and shareholder meetings and proxy statement matters, including shareholder proposals and proxy contests.

Our lawyers handle employee benefits matters of any magnitude or complexity, from plan design through plan operation and any adversarial proceedings involving benefits plans. We regularly draft executive compensation plans designed to attract and retain top executives, as well as transition and retirement plans. We draw from backgrounds in corporate, tax, employment, and securities law, thus offering our clients the advantage of interdisciplinary representation. O’Melveny’s Newport Beach lawyers are often brought in to work on the employee benefits issues in major transactions being handled across the Firm. In 2007, we provided benefits counsel in the US$2.1 billion acquisition of Highland Hospitality Corporation by JER Partners, a deal negotiated by our corporate practice.

O’Melveny helps its clients protect valuable innovations in cutting-edge fields. Lawyers in our Newport Beach office represent a diverse array of clients in civil and criminal matters involving patent, copyright, trade secret, trademark, and trade dress issues, with particular experience in patent infringement litigation and the related antitrust and unfair competition claims that often accompany such cases. With many of our lawyers holding advanced scientific degrees, our work encompasses life sciences and medical devices. We also manage the patent and trademark portfolios for a variety of clients. For example, representing International Game Technology in a high-stakes patent infringement dispute against Bally Technologies, we obtained a major summary judgment ruling, resulting in findings of infringement and confirming the validity of IGT's patents.

We handle disputes brought as individual claims, aggregated suits, and class actions based on employment discrimination, wrongful termination, harassment, wage and hour, ERISA, and employee benefits challenges. We also advise employers on a broad array of employment matters, including union organizing and collective bargaining. Our clients are diverse, ranging from traditional manufacturing to internet companies, pharmaceutical distributors to major airlines.

We represent private equity funds, investment banks, and public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, partnering and joint venture transactions. Our lawyers also advise on proxy fights, unsolicited transactions, and defensive countermeasures. We recently represented Western Digital Corporation, one of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, in its acquisition of Komag, Incorporated, a leading supplier of thin-film disks, in a cash deal valued at approximately US$1 billion.  More recently, O’Melveny represented Tween Brands, Inc., the largest premier tween specialty retailer in the world, in its proposed merger transaction with The Dress Barn, Inc. The transaction, which is subject to stockholder approval of Tween Brands, Inc., was unanimously approved by Tween Brand, Inc.'s and The Dress Barn, Inc.'s Board of Directors and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Our lawyers are experienced in nearly every type of transaction involving real property, energy, and infrastructure development and financing. We have represented project sponsors, developers, investment and commercial banks, institutional lenders, and governmental entities in projects throughout North, Central, and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Effective counseling requires a thorough understanding of these large and complex matters, and O’Melveny’s lawyers are uniquely qualified to provide industry-specific knowledge in a variety of sectors. For example, O’Melveny has represented Resmark Equity Partners, a provider of equity and debt financing for the homebuilding industry on behalf of institutional investors, including California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), in the majority of its transactions. We advised Resmark, partnered with an Orange County based private home builder, in the build-out of 236 lots in a master-planned community in San Diego.

O’Melveny represents public companies, investment banks, broker-dealers, and investment advisors in complex securities litigation and regulatory matters involving claims ranging from insider trading and stock manipulation to breach of fiduciary duty.  We defended Advanced Medical Optics and its directors who were named in four class action complaints seeking to enjoin Abbott Labs’ US$2.8 billion tender offer to Advanced Medical Optics’ shareholders.  After weeks of expedited discovery, the parties reached a settlement agreement requiring additional disclosures without an increase in the tender-offer price.  As a result, the plaintiffs withdrew their request for injunctive relief and the tender offer was successfully completed.