James Burgess

James M. Burgess is a trial lawyer and partner in the firm’s Century City office. Mr. Burgess represents businesses in commercial litigation, including through trial and appeal. His practice focuses on class actions and cases under the Unfair Competition Law (Business and Professions Code Section 17200), and he speaks and writes frequently on those issues. Mr. Burgess also has substantial experience handling the following types of disputes:

• Corporate matters involving governance, fiduciary duties, duty of loyalty, mergers and acquisitions, asset purchase agreements, earn-outs, working capital adjustments, and indemnity issues.
• Workers’ compensation insurance disputes involving claims handling, over-reserving, policyholder fraud, underwriting, payroll audits, uniform statistical reporting, worker classification, independent contractor disputes, and premium collection.
• Healthcare litigation relating to IPAs, purchase agreements, billing, revenue cycle management, EMR installation disputes, non-competition agreements, employment issues, medical device manufacturing agreements, internal medical practice disputes between doctors.
• Entertainment litigation involving distribution agreements, collection accounts, idea submission issues, copyright, and ADA access to online videogames and other websites.
• Real Estate litigation relating to purchase agreements, development agreements, hotel management agreements, lis pendens, leasing, broker fees, and tenant repair obligations upon termination.
• Product Defect matters relating to, among other things, lead acid batteries and fire suppression systems for jet aircraft.

Representative Clients:

• State Compensation Insurance Fund, Nordstrom, Inc., Fox Entertainment Group, Continental Casualty Co., Compwest Insurance Company, Conversive, Inc., Enersys and Lucite International, Inc.

Education:

• J.D., University of Southern California Law Center, 1990,Order of the Coif
• B.A., Claremont McKenna College, 1984

Admissions:

• California, including all federal District Courts in California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals;
• Eastern District of Pennsylvania (pro hac vice);
• Southern District of Texas (pro hac vice);
• District of Nevada (pro hac vice).