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About Nick Brestoff, M.S., J.D. (Of Counsel)
Education & Experience
Nick loves patent litigation and e-discovery because they allow him to combine his engineering education (B.S., systems engineering, UCLA; M.S. environmental engineering science, California Institute of Technology) with his legal training (J.D., USC) and over 35 years of litigation experience.
Litigation
Starting as a prosecutor and then switching to civil litigation, Nick's cases have included breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, civil rights, construction, environmental, employment, fraud, insurance coverage, professional liability, real estate entitlement (zoning), and fraud, trade secrets and unfair competition.
In the process, Nick earned and currently holds a peer-reviewed AV-Preeminent rating by Martindale Hubbell, the highest rating awarded for competence and ethics.
Here are three eight-figure, seven-figure, and high six-figure cases to illustrate the breadth of Nick's experience in trial and on appeal, in both state and federal court:
City Solutions, Inc. v. Clear Channel Communications, 365 F.3d 835 (9th Cir. 2004). In the Northern District of California, Nick was the lead trial counsel for the plaintiff, a small business. Nick proved both fraud and unfair competition to a 10-person jury. During this case, Nick's opposing counsel were multiple attorneys from Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison (then California's largest law firm) and Zelle Hoffman Voelbel Mason & Gette (in trial and on appeal). After the verdict, the district court granted defendant's Fed. R. Civ. P. Rule 50 motion on the $9.0 million fraud verdict, leaving only the unfair competition award of $800,000. After the Ninth Circuit reinstated the jury's $9.0 million award and affirmed the $800,000 unfair competition verdict, Nick's client collected $10.1 million.
Confidential, Los Angeles Superior Court. Nick represented the plaintiff in a shareholder derivative action which settled for $4.4 million.
Little v. Auto Stiegler, Inc. (2003) 29 Cal.4th 1064. Here, Nick represented an individual, Alexander Little, in a case that resulted in a key employment law decision by the California Supreme Court. Defendants' counsel were attorneys from the employment law firm of Fisher & Phillips. In the arbitration trial that followed the Supreme Court's decision, Nick's client prevailed and collected $742,000.
