Find Lawyers in San Francisco, 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.
John Bartko is a Founder and a Principal of the firm. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil, criminal and regulatory matters. He has represented many executives ensnared in complex regulatory investigations and has been involved in significant international discovery and complex investigations requiring foreign court appearances, including conducting examinations in Switzerland and Japan through pioneering requests for civil judicial assistance. He has traveled to Euro...
Jim Basile is a partner in Kirkland's Bay Area office. He has spent twenty-eight years as a trial lawyer, was a founding partner of Kirkland's San Francisco office and head of Kirkland's San Francisco litigation practice for over a decade. He is the partner in charge of Kirkland's Firmwide trial advocacy program and litigation attorney training program (the Kirkland Institute for Trial Advocacy). Jim is a seasoned litigator with a diverse practice focusing on high-profile, complex litigation ...
Michael W. Bien is a founding partner of Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP where he concentrates his litigation practice on complex commercial litigation, class actions, constitutional and civil rights law, antitrust, intellectual property, disability rights, and attorneys’ fees disputes. He was managing partner for 27 years, stepping down in January 2018. Mr. Bien was named a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year for 2010 by both California Lawyer magazine and The Recorder and was ...
Bob Blum is a litigator who represents contractors and owners on construction claims and clients in many industries on contract and indemnity claims. He counsels lawyers and law firms on professional responsibility matters and represents creditors in bankruptcy cases. What Do You Focus On? With more than three decades of experience, I focus my practice in the following areas. Commercial Contract Litigation I represent construction, energy, vegetation management, financial services and retail ...
Teresa Bonder is the chair of the firm’s Antitrust Practice Group. She focuses her practice on the areas of antitrust and other commercial litigation—including class actions—and antitrust counseling, with respect to mergers, acquisitions and other business ventures. Teresa has successfully represented clients in the financial services, dairy processing, real estate, consumer credit reporting, floor covering, travel, telecommunications and other industries in antitrust and ot...
Robert Bunzel is a Principal of the firm. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants in civil, criminal and regulatory matters such as venture finance, business and shareholder disputes, environmental and employment law, class actions, data breach and professional malpractice. His practice has involved significant international discovery and foreign court appearances, including examinations in Zurich and Lugano through pioneering requests for civil judicial assistance to Switzerland, as wel...
Frank Burke is the founder of Frank Burke Mediation and Arbitration PC, and a panel member of the National Rosters of Arbitrators and Mediators of the American Arbitration Association for Commercial, Large Complex Case and Energy Disputes. He is a Member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, California Chapter, recognized for both mediation and arbitration. He also serves as a Mediation Panel Member of the U.S. District Court ADR Program and on several state court mediation panel...
Bill Campbell is an attorney at BraunHagey & Borden. He has over 30 years’ experience in insurance coverage, professional liability, and other complex business cases. Bill’s insurance coverage practice includes counseling and litigating on behalf of clients concerning a wide range of insurance coverage issues. He has extensive experience in representing clients in complex civil cases in state and federal courts. He also provides coverage opinions and assists clients in analyzi...
After leading BigLaw teams for years in high stakes and precedent setting cases in U.S. courts and international arbitration tribunals, Mr. Chao in May 2019 launched a boutique enabling him to sit as arbitrator, mediator, and special master, and to handle selected litigation matters. He was a partner for 29 years at a 1,000 lawyer global firm, where he founded and led the international litigation and arbitration practice; and for 6 years, he served as the U.S. head of the international arbitr...
Lou Cisz concentrates his practice on insolvency, restructuring debts, creditors’ remedies and related litigation. His clients include lenders, special servicers, manufacturers, vendors, contractors, health care companies, insurers, indenture trustees, buyers and sellers of assets and business ventures in a large cross-section of industries. Mr. Cisz has also worked in the food and beverage industry and has represented clients in that industry throughout his career. He has represented p...
Jordan Eth is Chair of the firm's Securities Litigation, Enforcement, and White-Collar Criminal Defense Group. He is one of the nation's leading securities litigators, representing public companies and their officers and directors in securities class actions, SEC investigations, derivative suits, mergers and acquisitions litigation, and internal investigations. In 2008, Mr. Eth received aCalifornia Lawyer Attorney of the Year Award for co-leading the successful defense of JDS Uniphase Corp. a...
Martin Fineman has tried cases for over 30 years in the areas of contract, corporate, telecommunications, securities, intellectual property and international law with an emphasis on class action cases. He has tried numerous cases before judges, juries and arbitrators, and has argued appeals to the California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Martin also is a commercial and securities arbitrator through the American Arbitration Association, a J...
Pam Fulmer has substantial experience litigating all types of intellectual property and commercial disputes with a special emphasis on licensing disputes. Her cases have included copyright, trademark, trade secret and patent infringement, as well as privacy related lawsuits. Pam also has experience in lawsuits involving the Lanham Act and false advertising, unfair competition, trade libel, licensing, and other complex litigation. In addition to her intellectual property practice, Pam has deep...
Arturo González is chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Commercial Litigation and Trial Practice Group and a former co-chair of our Litigation Department. He is a trial lawyer who specializes in high-stakes, bet-the-company litigation. Mr. González has successfully defended three trials where the plaintiffs sought more than $1 billion in damages, including a trade secrets case on behalf of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. That lawsuit was filed by Silvaco Data Systems, and...
Steve Hankins tries cases involving intellectual property, employment, and other disputes. Steve was hooked on trial advocacy right after college when he worked with a group of busy personal injury trial attorneys. There were many trials, each one requiring empathy, creativity, forensic legwork, and nuanced advocacy. Raised by English teachers and artists, these skills come naturally to Steve. After 25 years of practice, Steve still enjoys more than anything else the careful preparation and f...
Jenny Kuenster’s practice includes defense of toxic tort matters throughout the country. She is national counsel for companies with large dockets of asbestos and other toxic tort cases. In addition to her focus on toxic tort litigation, she has litigated a broad range of cases, including employment, contract and insurance matters. My focus National Counsel I work closely with clients to find well-reasoned, creative and cost effective solutions to litigation. In my work managing large do...
Barry W. Lee, a partner in the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, is co-chair of the trial practice group and the financial services litigation group. He focuses on commercial litigation and has extensive jury and bench trial experience encompassing a variety of areas, including real estate, banking/lender liability, antitrust/unfair competition, employment, consumer class actions, environmental, construction, probate, securities, products liability and insurance coverage. Barry’s m...
Clients in the financial services industry rely on Jim McCabe’s acumen, gained after more than three decades of experience defending complex civil litigation, particularly with an emphasis on consumer financial products and consumer reports. Jim is a seasoned business litigator with decades of experience defending companies in class actions and other complex civil litigation involving consumer reports, consumer financial products, employment discrimination, insurance coverage, and vario...
Ross focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation with an emphasis on defending products liability and health effects claims. What do you focus on? For two decades I have represented large and small businesses across a wide range of industries, including energy companies, vehicle manufacturers, contractors, distributors and property owners. A significant part of my work includes national strategy and coordination of mass tort personal injury litigation. From trials to appeals, I defe...
Ben Riley is a Principal of the firm and serves on its Executive Committee. He has tried nearly 30 cases to verdict including jury trials, court trials, and complex arbitrations. His practice focuses on Intellectual Property Litigation, including patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks and license disputes. He also has an active practice in Business Litigation, including class action defense, defense of “consumer claims” under the Lanham Act and unfair competition statutes,...
Brandon M. Carr focuses his practice on complex business and commercial litigation matters. His experience encompasses a wide variety of cases at both the trial and appellate levels, including contract, fraud and indemnification cases, shareholder disputes, business/real property valuation cases, matters involving general business torts, employment disputes and intellectual property rights. Mr. Carr has first- and second-chair trial experience, and has obtained favorable orders and significan...
Conor McNamara is a member of Nixon Peabody’s Complex Commercial Disputes practice. He represents public and private companies and individuals in connection with contract and intellectual property disputes, construction matters, and government investigations. Conor previously worked as an extern for the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. My focus I focus my practice on commercial, intellectual property, and other compl...
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