PAUL F. DONSBACH

Paul’s legal practice focuses on complex, multimillion-dollar litigation, including labor and employment disputes, professional liability, directors and officers liability, business torts, commercial disputes, construction disputes and insurance coverage litigation. He has extensive trial experience in both state and federal courts, as well as in complex arbitration proceedings, including numerous jury trials tried to verdict. Paul’s practice includes the defense of insureds and self-insured corporations in a wide range of cases involving executives and officers liability, professional liability, bodily injury, wrongful death, property damage, statutory liability, and business disputes.

Paul’s experience in labor and employment litigation includes complex cases involving allegations of employment discrimination, sexual harassment, employee disability, retaliation, whistleblowing, wage and hour violations, trade secrets, non-competition agreements and employment contracts. He is a first-chair trial attorney in employment cases and other complex litigation, and his successful jury trial practice includes a favorable jury verdict in a complex federal trial of an employment dispute involving nuclear scientists hired as part of the United States Department of Energy’s nuclear non-proliferation program relating to the conversion of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) industries in the former Soviet Union.

Paul’s professional liability and directors and officers liability litigation includes disputes involving allegations of errors and omissions by attorneys, directors and officers, physicians, homeowners associations, insurance brokers, executives and other professionals. In a recent case involving the relocation of the Oakland Raiders NFL football team, Paul obtained a summary judgment for his client with respect to insurance coverage issues involving a $30 million verdict for negligent misrepresentation by the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum.

Paul’s trial practice also includes a number of significant victories in arbitration proceedings, including labor and employment matters and complex business disputes. His representation of clients in trials and arbitrations includes major clients in retailing, transportation, health care, insurance, manufacturing and aviation industries. Paul has extensive experience in representing Fortune 500 and other large commercial clients, and his practice focuses on the unique and specific needs of each client’s business, as well as responsive client service and careful attention to the client’s goals and objectives.

Earlier in his practice, Paul played a key role in several landmark litigation matters, including the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on settlement class actions in Amchem Prods., Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591 (1997), bankruptcy court jurisdiction involving asbestos-related claims in Celotex Corp. v. Edwards, 514 U.S. 300 (1995), and environmental damage from a catastrophic oil spill in In re Exxon Valdez, 1993 WL 735037 (D. Alaska 1993).

Education

• Southern Methodist University School of Law, JD, 1992; with honors; merit scholar; moot court finalist, SMU Law Review, editor
• University of Texas at Dallas, BA, 1989; magna cum laude

Admissions

• California
• Texas
• Pennsylvania
• Hawaii
• United States District Courts: Northern District of California, Southern District of California, Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of Texas, Southern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, District of Hawaii
• United States Courts of Appeal: Fourth Circuit, Ninth Circuit, Tenth Circuit
• United States Supreme Court
  

Representative Reported Cases

• Steadfast Ins. Co. v. Dobbas, 2008 WL 324023 (E.D. Cal. 2008)
• Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, Inc. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., 2007 WL 949687 (N.D. Cal. 2007)
• Reliance Ins. Co. v. Doctors’ Co., 299 F. Supp. 2d 1131 (D. Haw. 2003)