Civil Litigation
Leon & Leon handles a variety of matters involving general civil litigation and counseling. Here is a sample of the kind of general civil litigation matters we handle:
- Won summary judgment in class action product defects suit in federal court on behalf of window UV filter manufacturer.
- Successfully defended major Midwest bank in class action suit regarding its home loan lending practices.
- Defended rock musicians against claims by crowd members of defamation and assault/battery at concert and forced nuisance settlements.
- Won significant damages at trial, including a punitive damages award for fraud, for bus purchaser against bus manufacturer and dealer.
- Currently representing Fortune 500 CEO in multimillion dollar tax refund suits in both federal and state courts.
- Lead counsel in First Amendment challenge by award-winning prisoner-journalist and The San Francisco Chronicle to Bureau of Prisons’ regulations prohibiting publication of newspaper and magazine articles by federal prisoners. Prevailed on TRO and PI, which permitted prisoner to continue writing for over 2 years and to have 30 more articles published in The Chronicle’s Sunday Punch and other publications. Guest on ABC’s Nightline, profiled in American Lawyer, and quoted by national and local media. Named Attorney of the Year by the Northern California Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists.
- From assisting many years ago in the representation of Johns-Manville Corp. in its recovery of close to $2 billion in insurance to pay for asbestos-related claims to now representing clients requesting defense/indemnity obligations from their insurers, we have extensive experience in all aspects of insurance litigation on behalf of policyholders. Strategic insurance-related considerations are frequent in a wide variety of litigation/counseling situations well beyond direct suits/claims by policyholders against insurers, such as structuring claims to trigger a defendant’s insurance coverage, persuading an insurer that an insured warrants a defense for a particular claim under applicable insurance policy terms, contending after a defense has been accepted that an insured is entitled to representation by an independent counsel as opposed to a counsel of the insurer’s choice and negotiating with insurers in settlement/mediation contexts. Representative engagements also have included cooperative work with insurers defending their insureds particularly in real estate, construction and commercial/business litigation settings.