Alex Reese is the chair of Farella’s Litigation Department and has a diverse litigation practice with significant expertise in disputes involving technology and issues of unfair competition. He has helped clients with pre-litigation counseling and alternative dispute resolution, and he has litigated cases through trial and appeal in matters involving trade secrets, antitrust and unfair competition, copyright infringement, and liability relating to web scraping, employee mobility and non-competition agreements, patent infringement, consumer confusion, and more.

Alex frequently represents both plaintiffs and defendants. As plaintiff’s counsel, he has helped to recover more than $1 billion for his clients through settlements, jury verdicts, and arbitration awards.  Alex’s clients include small companies and Fortune 100 companies in a wide range of industries, including software companies, Internet search and networking device providers, mobile device makers, national retailers, biotechnology companies, and more.

His notable engagements have included:

• Winning a multimillion-dollar verdict after a six-week trade secrets trial in the Northern District of California. Alex was an integral member of the trial team and handled the direct and cross examinations of several key witnesses. Learn more about this case here.
• Obtaining the largest antitrust settlement in California state court history on behalf of a certified class of California companies in a case against healthcare giant Sutter Health for its anticompetitive conduct that has resulted in decades of hospital overcharges. Alex was instrumental in preparing the case and litigating it through summary judgment and jury selection with a large team at Farella, co-counsel, and the California Attorney General’s office. Learn more about this case here.
• Winning a $29 million award, including attorneys’ fees, in an arbitration on behalf of a director of a venture capital firm in claims against the firm regarding the value of his ownership stake, the enforceability of non-compete agreements, and his right to vested carry.
• Representing more than a dozen clients involved in web scraping in a range of matters, including defending copyright infringement and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act lawsuits, counseling clients on scraping-related liability, and helping companies restructure to address scraping risks. Learn more about the firm’s groundbreaking representation of data scraping company hiQ Labs here.
• Representing companies and employees in venture capital, agricultural, and other industries in pre-litigation dispute resolution and litigation on employee exits, enforceability of non-compete agreements, and duty of loyalty claims.
• Representing companies of all sizes and individuals in complex copyright disputes. One notable engagement included obtaining reversal of a partial summary judgment ruling on behalf of two creators of a role-playing game in a Ninth Circuit appeal involving claims of trademark and copyright infringement, breach of contract, and business torts.
• Winning a complete victory at summary judgment on behalf of a leading e-commerce company in a suit involving breach of contract, antitrust violations, and defamation in the Western District of Washington.

Alex is a member of the Sedona Conference drafting committee on trade secrets issues. He publishes and speaks regularly on web scraping topics, including risks relating to copyright infringement and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claims. He is a past board member and president of several Bay Area legal services and nonprofit organizations and an active member of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s intellectual property and antitrust sections.