The Firm's Appellate Practice
The Firm regularly and successfully practices before all California appellate courts and the California Supreme Court, as well as the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and its partners have handled appellate matters in numerous other jurisdictions, including the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the Seventh Circuit, the Federal Circuit, and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. We excel in conducting the highly detailed analysis of the facts and law forming the basis of an underlying trial court’s decision which is necessary for proper representation before an appellate tribunal. The Firm’s emphasis on superior writing skills serves our clients well in our appellate practice where such skills are utilized to the fullest extent. The Firm not only handles appellate issues arising out of its trial practice, but is also often called upon by other counsel to step in and handle difficult appeals.
Recently, the Firm represented one of the largest property developers in the United States in complicated, multi-party land use litigation which went to the California Supreme Court and forced a legislative amendment favorable to our client. We also recently were engaged on appeal to represent the beneficiaries of a large estate who by virtue of an unfortunate trial result could have lost three-quarters of the estate to a “putative spouse” who claimed entitlement to the estate through a Mexican marriage. The Firm successfully employed the doctrine of judicial estoppel to achieve a complete and final reversal of the trial court’s ruling, restoring the full benefit of the estate to the testator’s named beneficiaries.
In the past, partners of the Firm have handled a multitude of appeals, both as appellant’s counsel and as respondent’s counsel, with an enviable rate of success. In the matter of Jarrow Formulas, Inc. v. Nutrition Now, Inc., 304 F.2d 829 (9thCir. 2002), two of the Firm’s partners successfully defended a nutritional supplements manufacturer against a competitor’s claims of unfair competition which were pursued through a petition to the United States Supreme Court. One of the Firm’s partners successfully represented entertainer Frank Sinatra in obtaining compensation for the misappropriation of his name and likeness by a combination of a Swiss health clinic, Clinique La Prairie, and the National Enquirer magazine, Sinatra v. National Enquirer, 854 F.2d 1191 (9th Cir. 1988). In the case of In Re Willie Gault, 578 N.Y.S.2d 683 (Appellate Division, Supreme Court of New York), one of the Firm’s partners singlehandedly overturned an injunctive order barring implementation of an arbitrator’s award allowing athletes Willie Gault, Edwin Moses, and Greg Harrell to compete in qualifying rounds for the 1992 Winter Olympic bobsled competition, moving from an unfavorable ruling on an Order to Show Cause to a successful emergency appeal reversing that order in less than three days.