Dimitri Portnoi is an experienced litigator who represents clients in a wide range of complex business litigation, financial service, and entertainment matters, including consumer class actions, unfair competition, business torts, fraud, contract and related commercial litigation. Dimitri has represented clients in a diverse array of industries, including entertainment, health care, natural resources, finance and banking, communications, and manufacturing. These clients have worked with Dimitri in a variety of matters, including federal constitutional cases, international law and the Alien Tort Statute, copyright and trademark law, products liability, federal anti-discrimination law, state tax litigation, consumer class actions, ERISA litigation, and contract and related commercial litigation. As a core member of the Firm’s Water industry group, Dimitri’s clients also rely on his expertise in water law and regulatory law, and call on him frequently for counsel on both litigation matters and transactions. Dimitri has worked on multiple trials, both as trial and appellate counsel, and on numerous appeals.
Honors & Awards
- Named one of the "Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40" by the National LGBT Bar Association (2016)
Admissions
Bar Admissions
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 of 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
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)
