Christopher Ruhland

Christopher S. Ruhland is a trial lawyer who represents clients in complex and significant litigation throughout the country. One of the founding partners of Dechert’s Los Angeles office, Mr. Ruhland has represented clients in a broad spectrum of sectors, including media, financial, healthcare, retail, transportation, government and education.

He has won cases for clients in a wide range of civil litigation disputes, including fraud, breach of contract, unfair competition, antitrust, patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, defamation, employment and product liability.

Mr. Ruhland has been recognized for the quality of his work by rating organizations such as Chambers USA, The Legal 500 and Super Lawyers. Mr. Ruhland teaches trial and pre-trial advocacy techniques to other lawyers, and he is a frequent author and speaker on civil litigation and intellectual property topics.

He is the author of Attorney-Client Privilege Answer Book(Practising Law Institute), which recently was updated in the 2019 edition. He has presented before the International Trademark Association and the United States Copyright Society, has been quoted on legal subjects in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, and has appeared as a legal analyst on MSNBC and Bloomberg.

Mr. Ruhland also is active in the legal community.  He has been a board member of the Constitutional Rights Foundation since 2011. He is a member of the Judicial Elections Evaluation Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar and is the co-chair of an ABA Trial Practice subcommittee.

Prior to joining Dechert, Mr. Ruhland was a litigation partner at another large international law firm, and he previously worked in-house as Senior Counsel at The Walt Disney Company.

EDUCATION:

• University of California, Irvine, B.A., 1991, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
• UCLA School of Law, J.D., 1994, Managing Editor of the UCLA Law Review

ADMISSIONS :

• California
• District of Columbia
• New York
• Supreme Court of the United States
• United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
• United States District Court for the Southern District of California

MEMBERSHIPS :

• Member, American Bar Association
• Member, Association of Business Trial Lawyers
• Member, Los Angeles County Bar (Judicial Elections Evaluation Committee)
• Board Member, Constitutional Rights Foundation

EXPERIENCE :

• Business Litigation
  • Obtained a complete victory for wind energy investment companies at a trial in Los Angeles involving alleged fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract.
  • Successfully represented Vident in an antitrust lawsuit in Los Angeles against one of the nation’s largest suppliers of dental products.
  • Obtained judgments totaling US$43 million for Efferton DMCC in a fraud case in federal court in Los Angeles.
  • Defeated a class action in New York in which puchasers of delivery services contended that they were inappropriately billed millions of dollars for fuel surchages.
• Intellectual Property Litigation
  • Won dismissal of a trademark infringement lawsuit in Los Angeles against The Walt Disney Company and ESPN involving the title of a television program.
  • Prevailed in arbitrations involving movie titles for Fox Entertainment and Sony Pictures in disputes against other major movie studios.
  • Successfully defended Mount Saint Mary’s University in a trademark lawsuit in federal court in Maryland filed by another university.
  • Represented clients such as Countrywide Financial, Fox and MySpace in successful domain name litigation in various jurisdictions.