T: 415.954.4495
F: 415.954.4480
sskaff@fbm.com
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Stephanie P. Skaff, Partner
Stephanie Skaff is a partner and a member of the firm's Business Litigation and Intellectual Property and Technology Groups. She has experience in a wide variety of complex litigation matters, including fraud, securities, false claims, antitrust and intellectual property litigation.
Ms. Skaff represents corporate and individual defendants in complex securities fraud actions, and serves as Special Board Committee counsel and as counsel for individual board members in connection with threatened and/or filed derivative actions. With a background in finance and accounting, Ms. Skaff is particularly skilled at representing clients in disputes involving accounting issues, including actions alleging improper revenue recognition and other allegedly fraudulent accounting practices. Ms. Skaff's current clients include a large financial services firm facing fraud and antitrust claims related to the sale of municipal bond insurance, an accounting firm facing a series of actions alleging the fraudulent promotion of failed tax shelters, a former CEO charged with securities violations by the SEC, and a Silicon Valley company conducting an internal investigation of alleged accounting irregularities.
Ms. Skaff is also well-known for her experience litigating high-profile fraud and False Claims Act cases. She successfully represented the City and County of San Francisco in a highly-publicized, multi-million dollar commercial fraud and false claims case involving the construction of the San Francisco International Airport. She also helped negotiate what continues to be the largest recovery to date under the California False Claims statute -- a $187.5 million settlement of a fraud and false claim action relating to a bond accounting system brought against a large national bank on behalf of a qui tam plaintiff, the State of California and numerous California cities, counties and local government agencies.
In addition to complex financial and accounting disputes, Ms. Skaff also represents clients involved in intellectual property litigation, including patent infringement actions involving financial services, computer software and/or database technology, and licensing disputes involving complex royalty issues. Ms. Skaff has successfully litigated patent infringement actions for more than a decade, including actions in the Northern District of California, the Eastern District of Texas and other federal jurisdictions.
In 2006, Ms. Skaff was chosen by the Daily Journal as one of California's "Top 20 Lawyers Under 40" and she has been recognized for the past three years by San Francisco Magazine as a Northern California "Super Lawyer."
Prior to her legal career, Ms. Skaff worked in the Los Angeles office of a large public accounting firm.