Business Litigation

Defended a smart meter technology company in a federal bankruptcy court bench trial against billion-dollar damage claims asserted by a technology licensor. Following the two-week trial, the court found for our client on all counts, not only rejecting the licensor’s damage claims but fully vindicating our client's rights under the license agreement.

Successfully defended client against a $100 million lawsuit brought by the United States alleging that a land lease between Nevada Links and Clark County violated the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act administered by the Bureau of Land Management.  Following more than three years of litigation, the U.S District Court District of Nevada granted Nevada Links’ summary judgment motion, agreeing with the Farella team’s position that the statute of limitations had expired before the United States filed suit.

Represented UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust (UEBT) and a certified class of direct purchasers of hospital services in seeking preliminary approval of a historic settlement reached on the eve of trial in the landmark antitrust class action against Sutter Health, the largest hospital system in Northern California. Sutter has agreed to pay $575,000,000 in monetary relief and to comply with comprehensive injunctive relief, including an independent monitor who will police Sutter’s compliance with the proposed final judgment over a 10-year period.

After a three-week arbitration hearing, our trial team won a $4 million-plus arbitration award on behalf of a small technology startup against a multinational corporation for breach of a nanotechnology development agreement.

We represented Atmel, a leading semiconductor manufacturer, in a multi-week arbitration through which we obtained an award of over $43 million arising from Ericsson's misappropriation of Atmel's patented AVR microcontroller technology and Ericsson's multiple breaches of the parties' license agreement.  The International Centre for Dispute Resolution, International Arbitration Tribunal also awarded Atmel a permanent injunction prohibiting Ericsson from continued misappropriation of Atmel's proprietary technology.

Farella client Monex Deposit Company has won the dismissal of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforcement action filed against it for alleged fraud related to the financed sale of precious metals to retail customers. The Honorable James V. Selna, who issued the tentative ruling in March 2018, confirmed the dismissal on May 1, 2018.

Represented startup hiQ Labs Inc. in a precedent-setting litigation for data analytics, mining, and aggregator companies and their right to access publicly available data under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and a California state law on unauthorized computer access. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed hiQ’s preliminary injunction against LinkedIn.

We are defending Dell Financial Services in a federal court consumer class action alleging claims for violations of the Penal Code, the UCL, invasion of privacy and negligence arising from the alleged recording of customer phone call without consent. 

We represent the inventor and patent holder for using Botox (botulinum toxin) to treat migraine headaches, in a suit concerning the scope of royalties for follow-on (improvement) patents.

Represented a public company and executive leadership team in defense of civil trade-secret allegations.

On appeal, we won a dismissal on anti-SLAPP grounds of an event promotions company’s business tort claims against a local city and its officials, with an award of attorney’s fees.  Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the rest of the suit.  Area 51 Productions, Inc. v. City of Alameda, 20 Cal. App. 5th 581 (2018). 

We represented Auberge Resorts in connection with preparation and negotiation of management agreements, technical assistance agreements, and club management agreements for management of the two newest Auberge resorts: the Calistoga Ranch, an upscale resort and fractional ownership project in the heart of the Napa Valley, whose primary owner is Olympus Real Estate Partners; and the Inn at Palmetto Bluff, a luxury resort and spa with an associated Jack Nicklaus golf course, located in the South Carolina low country and owned by Crescent Resources, the development arm of Duke Energy.  We also negotiated Auberge’s participation in the ownership entity for Calistoga Ranch.

We successfully defended Nestle Waters in an alleged nationwide consumer class action filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that Nestle Waters intentionally delivered unordered products to residential and commercial customers. After four years of litigation, we obtained summary judgment against plaintiff’s nationwide class breach of contract theory, and then defeated class certification on the remaining false advertising, Business & Professions Code section 17200 unfair competition, and fraud claims.

We represented a former software company CEO in defense of a civil enforcement action brought by the SEC alleging accounting improprieties. After obtaining a ruling on summary judgment that significantly narrowed the claims against our client, we negotiated a favorable settlement with the SEC.