Find Lawyers in San Diego, California for Commercial Litigation
Practice Area Overview
Litigation increasingly occurs in various venues, from state and federal courts to private arbitrations and administrative hearings. Proceedings can involve business-to-business disputes or any number of government agencies. Understanding the motivations and outlook of each of the litigation participants is important for determining weak points to exploit and strong points that will persuade the audience in question. During the past decade, commercial litigators have seen a dramatic uptick in multidistrict and inter-disciplinary litigation, making the stakes higher, the cases more complex, the parties more numerous and the discovery more complicated and unwieldy. Firms that are able to develop and implement a creative legal approach to each individual problem, efficiently focus on the key legal and factual issues, and master and manage the various aspects of these complex matters will be the busiest in the years to come.
In the current challenging economic climate, commercial litigators are under increasing client pressure to keep costs in check, which has both sides testing the efficacy of alternative fee arrangements and the scope of reasonable discovery. Whether the “death of the billable hour” is ultimately realized, the keys to a commercial litigator’s success will continue to be strong client relationships, thought leadership, practical management skills, deep experience, and personal commitment.
Eric Acker is a partner and trial lawyer in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. Mr. Acker has tried more than 50 trials (including more than 47 jury trials) in courtrooms across the country. Mr. Acker’s recent trials have involved a variety of technologies and significant legal issues. In the high-profile SCO v. Novell case, following a three-week trial, the jury affirmed our client Novell’s ownership of the copyrights to the UNIX software code and rejected SCO’s c...
Experienced in all aspects of case handling, Micaela P. Banach has amassed an impressive track record over the course of her career – skillfully representing both plaintiffs and defendants in practice areas that include matters of real estate, employment, products liability, professional liability and business disputes, such as contract issues and fraud. Results driven, she has secured successful results for numerous clients – most notably obtaining a multi-million dollar judgment...
Vincent J. Bartolotta, Jr. is a founding partner of Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire. He specializes in plaintiffs' litigation with an emphasis in business disputes, condemnation, and major injury cases. A tenacious litigator, Bartolotta is recognized annually by Woodward/White as one of the Best Lawyers in America -- a recognition he's received every year since 1987. "There's really no secret about what I do," he says, "I really do care for my clients; each case gets a piece of my soul." Bartolot...
Ethan T. Boyer dedicates his practice to resolving complex business and commercial disputes, including intellectual property matters, real estate and product liability cases. Boyer has successfully handled all aspects of commercial and business litigation, in trials, arbitrations and appeals. Boyer has been named one of the Best Lawyers in America® by his peers since 2015 for commercial litigation. Best Lawyers has published its list for more than three decades, earning the respect of the...
Ed Chapin is the Managing Partner in the San Diego office of Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, a national law firm with offices in the District of Columbia, New York, California, Tennessee, and Maryland. Ed received his J.D. from the University of Missouri School of Law and his B.S. from Southwest Missouri State University. Ed is a veteran litigator whose practice spans class actions, unfair business practices, professional negligence, insurance coverage, bad faith, toxic torts, serious personal in...
Steven Cologne was elected Managing Partner of the Firm in 2016. He devotes his practice to complex Tort and Commercial litigation in State and Federal Courts. In 2020, Mr. Cologne achieved the distinction of being certified as a Fellow in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) effective May 2020. On May 4, 2020, he was admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia. Mr. Cologne joined Higgs Fletcher & Mack in 1999 after previously enjoying 15 years as an associate, partner ...
Steve Coopersmith is the founder and Managing Partner of The Coopersmith Law Firm, LLP in San Diego, California. The Firm represents clients throughout Southern California in a wide range of business and corporate litigation matters, including those stemming from corporate and partnership dissolutions, securities and financial fraud violations, bet-the-company litigation, executive-level business employment disputes, and fine art law disputes. Mr. Coopersmith also handles select planning and ...
Cheryl Dunn Soto is a seasoned attorney whose practice focuses on insurance coverage and bad faith litigation on behalf of commercial policyholders. Her clients have included contractors, developers, real estate professionals, medical groups, broker-dealers, accountants, law firms, HOAs, distributors and manufacturers, and other companies throughout California. Cheryl handles a wide variety of coverage matters and has significant experience with liability policies, including directors and off...
Kenneth M. Fitzgerald is a highly experienced trial lawyer, practicing business litigation with an emphasis on complex commercial cases and intellectual property disputes. Before joining the firm, Mr. Fitzgerald was a partner at Latham & Watkins, where he successfully tried numerous cases to verdict in state and federal courts throughout the country. Mr. Fitzgerald has handled a wide variety of commercial litigation matters involving contracts, business torts, trademarks, trade dress, cop...
Michael J. Gleason is an AV-rated trial and appellate lawyer with over 20 years of experience handling key areas of business litigation, including consumer class action defense, California’s Proposition 65, product liability, fraud, real estate, escrow, and title insurance. He serves as Partner-in-Charge of Hahn Loeser’s San Diego office, is founder of the firm’s Proposition 65 defense group, and a member of the San Diego Litigation Team, which is ranked among the Top Tier P...
Steven A. Goldfarb, co-chair of Hahn Loeser’s national Litigation Practice Area, is a skilled and highly acclaimed trial lawyer practicing in California and Ohio with experience representing companies and individuals across the country in diverse business litigation matters. In addition to leading the firm’s well-recognized Class Action and Title Insurance Industry Teams, Steve has significant experience in unfair competition/trade secrets, insurance coverage/bad faith, securities...
Partner Alexis S. Gutierrez is the Chair of HFM's Litigation Department, in addition to serving on the firm’s Executive and Management Committees. With over 20 years of first chair experience, Mr. Gutierrez provides business and employment counseling and complex commercial litigation support to public and private entities, and non-profit organizations. He enjoys Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer rating (“AV Preeminent”) for Legal Ability and General-Ethical Standards. ...
For more than 20 years, Jason M. Kirby has represented hundreds of clients in litigation cases in San Diego and throughout California. Kirby’s primary practice areas are business litigation and real estate litigation, but he has been involved in almost every type of civil case at some point during his career. Kirby is an experienced trial lawyer. Kirby handles both plaintiff’s cases and defense cases. As a plaintiff’s lawyer, he has had multiple jury verdicts in excess of a ...
For more than 30 years, Michael L. Kirby has been involved in civil litigation, trying more than 50 jury trials throughout his career and obtaining total recoveries valued in excess of $275 million as lead counsel. His expertise is extensive and covers a variety of practice areas that involve business, partnerships, real estate and investor disputes. He has received multiple Outstanding Trial Lawyer awards from the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. He successfully tried five cases in five diff...
James Lance is an experienced trial attorney who has represented both plaintiffs and defendants for over 37 years. He regularly represents defendants in bet-the-company litigation, and has obtained several 7 and 8 figure verdicts, judgments and settlements for personal injury and commercial plaintiffs. Lance obtained an award of more than $12 million in early 2024 for an individual plaintiff asserting an employment claim. In addition to the commercial matters, Lance routinely represents indiv...
William Low practices in the areas of complex tort and business litigation, with a current emphasis on professional liability, privacy, information security, product liability, and healthcare. Mr. Low, an HFM Partner, also serves as general counsel for the firm, a role in which he regularly advises the firm’s lawyers on issues related to ethics, conflicts of interest and professional responsibility. In addition, he has served as an expert witness in legal malpractice cases. Throughout h...
Craig R. McClellan is the first and only San Diego personal injury attorney selected for admission to the Inner Circle of Advocates, a prestigious invitation-only group of top plaintiff's attorneys, limited to 100 members nationwide. Mr. McClellan has obtained more than 130 verdicts and settlements in excess of one million dollars, and is a three-time recipient of the "Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award" from the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego for cases in which million and multi-million dollar ...
Dan Mogin was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1980. He is also admitted in The Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth, Seventh and Second Circuits and the United States District Courts for the Southern, Central and Northern Districts of California. Mr. Mogin’s practice concentrates on antitrust, unfair competition and complex business litigation. He has been selected as lead or liaison counsel in numerous cases and has also freque...
Dave practices in the areas of Antitrust Liability, Professional Liability, Securities Litigation, Bank Litigation and General Business Litigation. Dave’s current practice is devoted to the trial of commercial and business matters, for both plaintiffs and defendants. Over the past three decades, Dave has represented clients as diverse as syndicates competing in the America’s Cup yacht races, numerous professional athletes in a variety of litigation matters, Fortune 500 companies i...
Douglas A. Pettit has extensive trial and litigation experience in the areas of civil litigation, business litigation, and professional liability. He has tried over 50 cases in California. His extraordinary record of favorable outcomes and exemplary client service has resulted in recognition by his peers over the years. He was inducted into the American Board of Trial Advocates in 2007 as the youngest member of the San Diego Chapter and has achieved Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating f...
Allison focuses her practice on commercial law, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, as well as related litigation and appeals. Her clients include creditors, asset purchasers, trustees and committees in reorganizations and liquidations in jurisdictions throughout the United States. Allison has been involved in a wide array of bankruptcy and restructuring-related matters. She has served on teams that have represented creditor interests in insolvency events in real estate, oil and gas, ente...
Erwin Shustak is the founder and Managing Partner of the Firm. He heads the Litigation and Arbitration Department, with over 40 years of extensive experience in a wide variety of complex disputes and transactions, across the country and overseas. Mr. Shustak specializes in litigations, trials, arbitrations and appeals of complex securities, financial and business disputes, with a particular emphasis in the areas of securities and financial services and regulation law. Few attorneys have the d...
Matthew C. Smith has extensive experience in all aspects of civil litigation, including trials, arbitrations, and mediations. Matt represents individuals and business clients on a wide variety of professional and business litigation matters. He has served as lead counsel or co-counsel in more than a dozen trials and arbitrations. Matt also handled several successful appeals and has argued before the Fourth District Court of Appeal. Matt earned his Juris Doctor from Washington & Lee Univer...
Nancy L. Stagg is a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP and vice chair of the Litigation Department for the San Diego office. Her practice emphasizes the defense of consumer class actions, unfair competition and false advertising litigation, as well as a wide variety of business and intellectual property litigation, including trade secret litigation. Ms. Stagg also has a background in product liability litigation. She has represented numerous publicly-held and private companies in nationwide...
Christine Y. Clark is an experienced litigator in Pettit Kohn Ingrassia Lutz & Dolin’s San Diego office. She represents large and small corporate clients against claims involving premises liability, product liability, and personal injury. She also handles a wide range of employment matters and focuses on the defense of employers in all aspects of employment litigation. Since joining the California bar in 2014, Christine has gained extensive civil litigation experience in matters bef...
John D. Drdek is an associate in the Firm’s San Diego office and is a member of the Litigation and Labor & Employment Groups. He handles a broad range of labor and employment issues for client matters. John also plays an integral role in all stages of the litigation process, from fighting complaints and managing discovery issues, to arguing substantive motions and advocating at trial. Prior to attending Stanford Law School, John graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts at the Uni...
Caitlin M. Jones is a trial attorney focusing on business litigation, professional liability, and ethics. She has tried more than a dozen jury trials and over thirty bench trials to verdict. For business clients, Caitlin is adept at resolving a wide array of issues through every stage of litigation. Caitlin has represented corporate clients in such diverse matters as trade secrets litigation, breach of contract, fraud, partnership disputes, counterfeit and trademark infringement, injury to bu...
Victoria Manfredonia is an associate in Hahn Loeser’s San Diego office and is a member of the firm’s Litigation Group. Victoria represents clients in a variety of commercial matters, including privacy and data litigation and advising, business torts, and contract and shareholder disputes, amongst others. Approaching complex matters with practical business solutions, Victoria strives to ensure clients know exactly the direction they should be headed at every stage and that they hav...
Kyle W. Nageotte represents companies of all sizes in a variety of practice areas, concentrating primarily on employment litigation. Mr. Nageotte has successfully represented employers in a broad range of employment law matters, including claims involving class actions, discrimination, wage and hour disputes, wrongful termination, trade secrets, and the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). A natural leader, Mr. Nageotte is a past-Chair of the California Young Lawyers Association (...
Partner Genevieve M. Sauter holds an impressive track record and strong background in complex business and civil litigation. Sauter has extensive experience in all aspects of case management, including litigation strategy, e-discovery and dispositive motion practice. Sauter has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in practice areas including general civil, business, financial services and intellectual property litigation. Sauter was previously an associate at the esteemed law firm Kirby...
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