Scott J. Leipzig

Real Estate Litigation

• Real Estate Developer. Secured a jury verdict in favor of a prominent developer of adaptive reuse projects in downtown Los Angeles. The jury awarded the client compensatory damages of $9.7 million for claims of breach of oral partnership agreement, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty. Additionally the jury awarded punitive damages in the amount of $3.9 million.
• Real Estate Developer. Secured a jury verdict in the defense of a real estate developer in a raw land subdivision and sales matter involving claims of breach of contract, concealment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. At trial, the jury rendered defense verdicts on each of the plaintiffs’ claims. As the prevailing party at trial, and under the rules governing Section 998 Offers to Compromise, 100% of the clients’ costs, expert fees and attorneys’ fees were recovered from the plaintiffs.
• Owner/Tenant. Defended the owner/tenant of a landmark California restaurant, in a hotly-contested litigation with its landlord. The litigation attempted to dispossess the restaurant owner of his 10-year option period and to raise the tenant’s rent for the next 10 years to almost twice the prior rent. The plaintiff argued that the "highest and best use" of the property would not yield such an extravagant rent if not for the existence of the restaurant. Scott prevailed in having the rent for the next 10 years set at its existing level. He also prevailed in the related fee motion in which his client was awarded 100% of its attorneys’ fees and court costs associated with the action.
• Real Estate Investor. Represented a real estate investor in an arbitration regarding the proper accounting of partnership assets. The case involved a dispute among a group of real estate investors who purchased various real estate holdings and subsequently invested significant partnership assets to renovate the holdings. Following the renovations, major disputes arose regarding the efficacy of the construction charges and management fees charged by certain partners, and the proper allocation and accounting of partnership revenues derived from the properties. Scott prevailed on behalf of the client in all major areas of dispute, and, as the prevailing party, secured arbitration process costs for the client.
• Telecommunications Companies. Counsel for major telecommunications companies, tower companies and lease aggregators in regard to a variety of contested wireless network real estate matters.
• Real Estate Entities and Financial Institutions. Counsel for a variety of real estate entities and financial institutions in title disputes and title indemnity valuation matters.

Business Litigation

• Electronic Device Manufacturer. Successfully defended a manufacturer of printer components used around the globe for point-of-sale and other devices in a lawsuit filed by a company that manufactures and sells a touch screen tablet device used on tabletops in thousands of national and international restaurant chains to order menu items and print receipts. The plaintiff sought damages of nearly $200 million based on its contentions that the printers supplied by the client were defective and that the client defrauded the plaintiff in various ways. The client stood by the quality of its product and overwhelmingly prevailed after a two-week jury trial, ending a highly contentious four-year legal battle.

• Software Company. Counsel for software company in two-week multi-party arbitration relating to breaches of intellectual property asset purchase agreement. Defeated all claims alleged against client and obtained multi-million dollar award in client's favor.
• Software Developer. Secured a favorable jury verdict in a five-week jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court involving a software licensing dispute. Scott represented the developer of a specialized software program used in the medical profession, who sought damages from the defendant company for failing to market and license the software as agreed by the parties. After a day of deliberations, the jury returned a multi-million dollar verdict against the defendants.
• Owner. Secured a favorable court verdict on behalf of a plaintiff in an action to determine ownership of a California-based medical waste treatment and disposal company which had been transferred to the client by the company’s managing member. The defendant claimed that the transfer was not valid, maintaining that the company belonged to a trust that he had allegedly established. The court agreed with Scott's position and found that no trust had been properly established by the defendant, and the transfer to plaintiff was valid.
• Financial Institutions. Counsel for several major financial institutions in restructuring, workout, and litigation relating to billions of dollars in structured commercial financing transactions.
• Financial Institutions. Counsel for major financial institutions in regard to defense of consumer mortgage lawsuits and in prosecution of loan re-purchase litigation.
• Entertainment Companies. Counsel for entertainment companies related to production disputes and disputes related to ownership and control of intellectual property.