David H. Stern

Experience

Complex Litigation

• Secured a unanimous defense verdict, following a two month jury trial in Santa Barbara, for the seller of a hotel in a real estate fraud case. (Recognized by Daily Journal for Top 2022 Defense Verdict in California)
• Defended a Fox News journalist in a defamation action brought by a former contributor and in a suit for intentional infliction of emotional distress brought by the parents of Seth Rich.
• Secured the dismissal of an intellectual property misappropriation suit brought by South Korea’s largest maker of anti-wrinkle botulinum toxin drugs.
• Represent real estate firm in dispute over the exclusivity of an easement over real property owned by the client in California, taking case through trial and the issuance of an award in client’s favor, including attorneys’ fees.
• Successful defense of subsidiaries of bwin.party digital entertainment in an international arbitration for alleged breach of contract and fraud relating to the purchase of the World Poker Tour.
• Secured a motion to dismiss a business tort action filed against world's then largest listed online gaming company.
• Reached a favorable settlement, after six weeks of jury trial, in an insurance coverage case regarding California's alleged $250 million liability for the Stringfellow Acid Pit.
• Obtained a favorable summary judgment on behalf of The Boeing Co. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. in federal multidistrict litigation arising out of the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, an MD-83 aircraft.
• Obtained summary judgment for physician in False Claims Act litigation.

Class Action

• Secured summary judgment in a class action for a transportation and logistics firm based on federal preemption of California’s wage and hour laws. The Ninth Circuit summarily affirmed the lower court's judgment in January 2023.
• Defended Anheuser-Busch in class action for allegedly violating consumer protection laws and fraudulently marketing non-alcoholic beer as an alcohol-free beer.
• On behalf of Renal Advantage, a subsidiary of Fresenius Medical Care, defeated a proposed class action when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court's dismissal.
• On behalf of Fresenius Medical Care, defeated class certification of meal-break wage and hour claims in the Central District of California.
• Defeated a motion for class certification on behalf of Burberry in the Central District of California, alleging that Burberry failed to comply with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act by printing credit card expiration dates on customer receipts.

Antitrust, Entertainment and Intellectual Property

• Obtained summary judgment for Tim Mosley (Timbaland) and Shawn Carter (Jay-Z) in a copyright infringement action in federal court in Los Angeles.
• Obtained summary judgment on behalf of the song writing, performing and recording artists Antwan Patton and Andre Benjamin (OutKast) in a declaratory judgment action in Los Angeles.
• Engineered the summary judgment motion in the Central District of California that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's seminal decision in Independent Ink v. Illinois Tool Works Inc., abolishing the presumption of market power in a Section 1 "patent-tying" action.
• Represented manufacturer of navigation systems used for commercial aircraft in a monopolization trial in federal court in Los Angeles. After a 13-week jury trial, obtained one of the largest antitrust verdicts ($750 million) at that time in client's favor.
• Represented more than 20 drag racing teams in unfair-competition suit against the National Hot Rod Association. 

Community

• Western Center on Law & Poverty: Former Director