Daniel Petrocelli > O'Melveny & Myers LLP > Los Angeles, United States > Lawyer Profile

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Dispute resolution > General commercial disputes

The highly regarded litigation department at O’Melveny & Myers LLP maintains strong client relationships with many household name companies, which turn to it in complex and high-profile disputes. Its work as lead counsel for AT&T and Time Warner in antitrust litigation brought by the DOJ against the companies’ $84.5bn merger is a case in point. In other major engagements, a cross-office team that included practice Los Angeles-based co-head Richard Goetz successfully defended Colgate-Palmolive company Hill’s Pet Nutrition when the Sixth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss with prejudice a false advertising and unfair competition lawsuit. Randall Oppenheimer co-heads the department from Century City, where well-known litigator Daniel Petrocelli is also based. Dawn Sestito maintains a broad commercial disputes practice from Los Angeles and is also active in pro bono work.

United States > Dispute resolution > Leading trial lawyers

Daniel Petrocelli – O’Melveny & Myers LLP ‘One of the best litigators around’, Daniel Petrocelli has a busy national trial practice across areas ranging from intellectual property and unfair competition to high-profile disputes in the entertainment and media sectors. ‘The man you call when you need to win’, Petrocelli is currently representing 20th Century Fox in a three-year claim against Netflix. Moreover, his reputation has secured him highly publicized trial positions, which have included representing Donald Trump in class actions pertaining to fraud and contractual breaches involving the defunct Trump University.

United States > Intellectual property > Copyright

O’Melveny & Myers LLP‘s copyright team handles primarily software and motion picture-related copyright disputes. Practice head Darin Snyder represented Artifex Software in its closely watched case against Hancom regarding whether a general public license for open-source software – in this case the client’s open-source PDF interpreter Ghostscript – is an enforceable contract. Working on the motion picture side of the practice are Los Angeles-based Matthew Kline and Daniel Petrocelli in Los Angeles and David Eberhart in San Francisco.

United States > Media, technology and telecoms > Media and entertainment: litigation

The Century City-based litigation practice at O’Melveny & Myers LLP counts Global Music Rights, Lionsgate and Warner Bros among its clients. Practice head Daniel Petrocelli led the defense of AT&T and Time Warner against allegations brought by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division that the companies’ $85.4bn merger would harm competition. In the music industry, the group successfully represented Sirius XM Radio before the Florida Supreme Court, which confirmed that pre-1972 recording owners cannot demand royalties for performance of their recordings during radio broadcast. The team is also acting for The Walt Disney Company in several matters including in copyright litigation relating to The Last Days of Michael Jackson, and a dispute over the accounting of net profits concerning the 1989 movie Turner & Hooch. Another client is Kesha in ongoing defamation claims against her longtime producer Lukasz Gottwald. Other key names to note include Molly Lens — who advised Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation on several intellectual property and employment disputes —, Drew Breuder and recently promoted partner Amy Lucas.

United States > Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense

O’Melveny & Myers LLP‘s antitrust team recently welcomed Benjamin Singer from the DOJ. In work highlights, Los Angeles-based Daniel Petrocelli recently secured a landmark victory for AT&T and Time Warner against the DOJ, which had challenged the clients’ vertical merger. Ian Simmons and Ben Bradshaw, who jointly head the practice, are currently representing Samsung in multi-district litigation seeking over $1bn in damages on the grounds of an alleged price-fixing conspiracy in the optical disk drive market. Also notable is Katrina Robson, who collaborated with Bradshaw and New York’s Andrew Frackman to advise American Airlines and the US Airways Group on two separate cases regarding allegations of a domestic conspiracy to inflate air travel fares, the second of which challenged Sabre’s practices of unreasonably restrained trade. Edward Moss is another key name in the New York office; Kenneth O’Rourke works with clients such as NextEra Energy and AT&T. Named individual are based in Washington DC unless otherwise stated. Richard Parker and Ted Hassi left the team for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP respectively.

United States > Antitrust > Merger control

O’Melveny & Myers LLP‘s merger control offering, which is jointly led by Ben Bradshaw and Ian Simmons in Washington DC, was recently strengthened by the arrival of experienced litigator and antitrust expert Benjamin Singer from the DOJ. Los Angeles-based Daniel Petrocelli, as well as Katrina Robson and Kenneth O’Rourke in Washington DC, acted as lead trial counsel to AT&T and Time Warner, defending their vertical merger against the DOJ. Also notable in DC is Courtney Dyer, who represented longstanding client Microsemi in its $10.4bn acquisition by Microchip Technology. Other key clients include a number of major airlines, ExxonMobil and Humana. Richard Parker and Ted Hassi moved to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP respectively.