John W. Spiegel

Key Representations as Lead Trial Counsel

• Rent-A-Center, Inc. in obtaining judgment after expedited trial in Delaware Court of Chancery in February 2019 holding a merger termination valid and resulting in payment to Rent-A-Center of a $92.5 million termination fee.
• The Los Angeles Clippers in litigation against Madison Square Garden, which is challenging the development of a new arena in Inglewood, California.
• A leading biotechnology company in its successful defense against a $100 million breach of contract claim brought by Fortune 50 pharmaceutical company.
• Adelphia as lead trial counsel in successfully recovering $68 million in a post-trial settlement against Motorola in a case alleging aiding and abetting fraudulent accounting practices at Adelphia.
• Jacobs Engineering in winning a $26 million judgment after a three-week court trial involving engineering services provided to all courthouses in Southern California.
• Warner Bros. in litigation with actor Charlie Sheen arising from his termination from the television series “Two and a Half Men.” Mr. Spiegel received a California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year Award for his representation in this case.
• Occidental Petroleum in obtaining an arbitration award against Chevron Texaco regarding the allocation of costs in the operation of a major oil field.
• Southern California Edison Company (SCE) in obtaining favorable results in litigation arising from the California power crisis in 2000-2001.This litigation included an action by SCE against the California Public Utilities Commission resulting in a settlement by which SCE recovered billions of dollars of electricity procurement costs, and breach of contract actions by dozens of electricity generators against SCE, which were dismissed by the coordination trial judge.

Key Representations in Securities and Shareholder Litigation and Related Matters

• Various clients, including Northrop Grumman Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, Edison International, Intel Corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Mattel and Corinthian Colleges in obtaining dismissals of federal securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits and affirmances of dismissals on appeal in the Ninth Circuit. Results included obtaining a published decision confirming important defenses for directors and officers under the federal securities laws (Metzler Investment GMBH v. Corinthian Colleges, 540 F.3d 1049 (9th Cir. 2008)).
• Transocean Ltd., the parent company and indirect owner of the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, in obtaining dismissals with prejudice in shareholder derivative litigation and federal securities cases arising from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
• The founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, in litigation in Delaware Chancery Court challenging the issuance of non-voting stock alleged to extend the founders’ voting control of Google. A settlement agreement reached the day before trial permitted the issuance of the challenged stock.
• A former CEO in a case of first impression brought by the SEC under Section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, seeking “clawback” of the CEO’s bonuses and stock profits without allegation of wrongdoing by the CEO.
• Mattel and its officers and directors in shareholder litigation arising out of the recall of toys manufactured in China. This matter was named one of the Los Angeles Daily Journal’s top 10 California defense verdicts of the year.
• Former officers and directors of IndyMac Bank and New Century Financial Corporation in litigation and investigations arising from the financial crisis.
• One of the nation’s largest law firms in litigation and investigations arising from the collapse of Enron Corporation, obtaining dismissal of securities class actions and successful resolution of other matters.