- Representing medical-device manufacturers as appellate counsel in complex and ongoing products liability litigation.
- Securing the dismissal of Fair Housing Act lawsuits brought by municipal entities against a leading global bank.
- Representing a financial services company in Attorney General lawsuits asserting violations of consumer protection laws, bringing a motion to dismiss in federal district court and litigating two appeals in the Ninth Circuit concerning the scope of the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA).
- Representing a major health services company in a class action lawsuit alleging improper reimbursement procedures and implicating significant issues of preemption under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
- Counseling a nationwide trade association concerning the federal constitutional implications of several municipalities’ proposals to exercise eminent domain authority over underwater mortgages.
- Representing a major motion picture studio in a contract, intellectual property, and First Amendment dispute involving several successful appeals before the Ninth Circuit and extensive motion practice before the district court.
- Defending a major energy company against a suit arising under the Alien Tort Statute, resulting in a quick and decisive victory before the district court.
- Representing major pharmaceutical manufacturers against Medicaid reimbursement, fraud and unfair trade practices claims brought by numerous State Attorneys General in petitions to respective state supreme courts.
- Counseling a land developer on potential challenges under California’s administrative and environmental laws to a municipality’s indefinite delay of a significant residential development project.
- Successfully representing a group of Nevada couples seeking to overturn that State’s ban on same-sex marriage.
- Representing before the Ninth Circuit a California prisoner in a Section 1983 challenge to his designation as a gang associate that resulted in his indefinite assignment to solitary confinement.
Admissions
Bar Admissions
- California
Court Admission
- US District Court, Central and Eastern Districts of California, and Southern District of Texas
- US Court of Appeals, Second, Fourth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits
Education
- New York University, J.D.: magna cum laude: Order of the Coif; Senior Articles Editor, New York University Law Review; Fellow, Center for Research in Crime and Justice; Pomeroy Scholar (top ten students in first-year class); Allen Scholar (top ten percent of students at end of second year; Paul D. Kaufman Law Review Prize (faculty-decided award for most outstanding student note)
- Columbia University, B.A., Political Science
Honors & Awards
- Named one of the “Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40” by the National LGBT Bar Association (2016)
Professional Activities
Clerkships
- Honorable Judith W. Rogers, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- Honorable Margaret M. Morrow, US District Court for the Central District of California
Author
- “Combating Organized Crime with Union Democracy: A Case Study of the Election Reform in U.S. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Vol. 42 (2009) (with Professor James B. Jacobs)
- “Note, Resorting to Extraordinary Writs: How the All Writs Act Rises to Fill the Gaps in the Rights of Enemy Combatants,” New York University Law Review, Vol. 83 (2008)
- “Administrative Criminal Law & Procedure in the Teamsters Union: What Has Been Achieved After (Nearly) Twenty Years,” Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Vol. 28 (2007) (with Professor James B. Jacobs)
Related Practices
Related Industries