Charles Peter Diamond

Among other, more-celebrated jury victories in Diamond's resume are back-to-back defense verdicts he won for ExxonMobil in Alaska in two multimillion-dollar cases arising from the grounding of the Exxon Valdez - the most recent of which the National Law Journal ranked among the "Top Defense Wins" of the year. Before that, Diamond and another team won a $192 million jury verdict in a patent-fraud antitrust case brought against Silicon Valley's Raychem Corp.

In long-running litigation for Paramount Pictures, Diamond rebuffed Art Buchwald's nationally-televised attempt to win millions on account of Paramount's accounting practices on the film Coming to America, and he successfully defended Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in a legal malpractice suit brought on behalf of a prominent Los Angeles businessman.

More recently, Diamond led a team opposing efforts by former California Gov. Davis and others to block the California Gubernatorial Recall Election, culminating in a nationally televised election-eve argument before an en banc Ninth Circuit, which ordered the election held on schedule. As a result of that engagement, Diamond became an advisor to then-Governor-elect Schwarzenegger, who appointed Diamond to his transition committee. Diamond currently represents Advanced Micro Devices in industry-shaping antitrust litigation against Intel Corp.

The Los Angeles Business Journal has recognized Diamond's stature in the Los Angeles legal community, putting him on its "Top 100" lawyer list two years running, and his wins have been chronicled on the pages of The American Lawyer and the National Law Journal. For four years running, he was recognized as a Southern California "Super Lawyer" in surveys conducted by Law & Politics Media Inc. and published in Los Angeles magazine.

Diamond's jury trial skills were honed in the 1980s as a court-appointed criminal defense lawyer in the Central District of California, when he defended 50 major felonies and handled over a half-dozen criminal appeals (including a U.S. Supreme Court argument), winning both dismissals and acquittals. He subsequently defended corporations and individuals facing prosecution by U.S. Justice Department and a host of other federal agencies, including the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Customs Service, the Postal Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

For the past twenty years, Diamond has focused on antitrust, entertainment industry and intellectual property disputes, particularly those headed for trial. In 2001, Gemstar retained him shortly before trial to prove up its patent infringement claims in the In re Set-Top Box Litigation, the largest patent dispute ever to come before the International Trade Commission, and it later hired him again to take the lead in a related billion-dollar antitrust case. Before that, Sony Pictures and its parent hired him to defend an idea theft claim brought by an inventor claiming ownership of a home-theater surround-sound invention. The list of other entertainment, media and technology clients for whom he has successfully litigated IP disputes is long and diverse and includes major studios, national newspapers, national television networks, record labels and a national toy brand.

Illustrative Professional Experience

· Represented Great Western Bank in the first contested takeover of a savings and loan

· Argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of an indigent criminal defendant in United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180 (1984)

· Defended or prosecuted copyright and trademark infringement claims involving a major studio's logo; Paramount Television's "ETM" acronym for Entertainment Tonight; USA Today's use of "New Kids On the Block"; the "Universal CityWalk" name for a Los Angeles real estate development; trade dress for a national toy brand's toy, and a reverse-engineered electric drill; and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' list of Oscar nominees

· Retained by a major aerospace manufacturer in over 3,000 individual and class action toxic tort suits arising from the largest superfund site in the United States

Professional Activities

Law Clerk, Honorable William Matthew Byrne, Jr., U.S. District Court, Central District of California

Admitted to Practice, U.S. District Court, Central District of California; U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; U.S. Supreme Court

Member, Indigent Defense Panel, Central District of California; Los Angeles County Bar Association; Association of Business Trial Lawyers; Million Dollar Advocates Forum

Author, "Navigating The California Trial Courts - The Hitchhiker's Guide To California's Local Rules," National Law Journal

Judge Pro Tem, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Municipal Courts

Guest, The Today Show, ABC's Prime Time; NBC's Trial Watch; CNN; CNBC; Fox News Network; Michael Jackson Show; regular speaker on entertainment and intellectual property litigation subjects, particularly studio profit participations, and trial advocacy and strategy

Presenter/Instructor, Association of Business Trial Lawyers; California CPA Continuing Education Foundation; National Institute of Trial Advocacy

Featured In, Los Angeles Business Journal, "Top 100 Lawyer List"; named a "Super Lawyer" in a survey conducted by Law & Politics Media Inc. and published in Los Angeles magazine (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008); New York Times; The American Lawyer; Fortune; Los Angeles Daily Journal; Wall Street Journal; Fortune; California Law Week; and many others

Recipient, Children's Institute Inc. "Champions of Children" Award (1990)

Community Activities

Member, Gov. Schwarzenegger Transition Committee

Vice-Chair, Board of Trustees, Children's Institute International

Former Trustee and Board Chair, Willows Community School, Culver City, CA

Member: Indigent Defense Panel, Central District of California; Los Angeles County Bar Association; Association of Business Trial Lawyers; Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers.