Matthew Bender Practice Guide: California Contract Litigation

The Hon. Jon S. Tigar was appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court by Governor Davis in December 2001. Prior to assuming the bench, Judge Tigar was a partner in the law firm of Keker & Van Nest, where he specialized in complex commercial litigation. He was also Co-Chair of that firm's Pro Bono Committee, and in 2001 he received the Wiley M. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services from the State Bar of California. He has also served as a trial lawyer in the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, and as a litigator in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster. He clerked for the late Honorable Robert S. Vance of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Birmingham, Alabama.

Judge Tigar graduated from the Boalt Hall School of Law, where he was a member of Order of the Coif and an Articles Editor of the California Law Review. He also has a Bachelor's Degree in English and Economics from Williams College.

Judge Tigar is active in several community and professional organizations, including the American Bar Association and the Center for Judicial Education and Research. In 2003, he was elected to the American Law Institute. He has lectured frequently both as a lawyer and as a judge, on topics including the basics of trial practice, pre-trial discovery, evidence, ethics, internal investigations, family law, and the California False Claims Act.

Judge Tigar currently sits as a Civil Trial Judge.

Dana J. Dunwoody is a partner in the San Diego County, Del Mar Heights office of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton's Business Trial Practice Group. Mr. Dunwoody's general business trial, arbitration and litigation practice emphasizes disputes concerning hotels, retail, real property, and complex contract, corporate, and partnership disputes. Mr. Dunwoody is a member of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC).

Mr. Dunwoody is the former Chair of the Executive Committee (1998–1999) of the then 12,000 member Litigation Section of the California State Bar. From 1990 to 1994 he served as the Editor-In-Chief of Cal. Lit. News, the Litigation Section's newsletter. Mr. Dunwoody also served as a Board member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers of San Diego. Mr. Dunwoody is a frequent lecturer and panelist in continuing education programs sponsored by the California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL), the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) and other organizations, where he has taught classes on trial and deposition techniques and strategies.

Mr. Dunwoody has served as a Consulting Editor for CEB's "Action Guide" series. He co-authored a chapter on Alternative Dispute Resolution, Mediation and Arbitration of hospitality disputes in "Hotel Investments: Issues & Perspectives"—4th Edition. He has edited portions of CEB's "Effective Use of ADR in California," and has written numerous other articles on legal and hotel-related topics.

Prior to joining Sheppard Mullin, Mr. Dunwoody practiced for 15 years as a member of Mazzarella, Dunwoody & Caldarelli LLP, in San Diego, a boutique trial firm he founded. Prior to that, Mr. Dunwoody was associated with the San Diego office of Allen, Matkins, Leck, Gamble & Mallory, San Diego's Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, and Los Angeles's Cox, Castle & Nicholson. Mr. Dunwoody is a former Judicial Extern for the Honorable Laughlin E. Waters of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He received his Juris Doctor degree in 1985 from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as an Associate Editor for the Industrial Relations Law Journal. Mr. Dunwoody received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego, with High Honors in Economics.

Charles Crompton is a Litigation Partner in Latham & Watkins' San Francisco Office and a member of the firm's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group, as well as the firm's Antitrust and Competition Group.

Mr. Crompton has handled intellectual property cases involving patent, trademark, copyright claims. He has also handled a number of antitrust cases. In fact, many of Mr. Crompton's most challenging and noteworthy cases involve the balance¿or the conflict, some would say¿between intellectual property rights on the one hand and the limits that the antitrust laws place on the assertion of those rights on the other. In 2004, Mr. Crompton was on the trial team that represented Oracle Corporation in its victory over the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust challenge to Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft.

Outside the courtroom, Mr. Crompton speaks and writes about his areas of experience. From 1999¿2000, he was the Chair of the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section of the California State Bar. He has lectured on trademark law for the Practicing Law Institute, computer law for Law Seminars International, antitrust law for the State Bar of California, and patent law for the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall. In addition, Mr. Crompton has received state and local awards for his pro bono work on behalf of indigent individuals and non?profit institutions.

Mr. Crompton received his B.A. from Columbia College in 1985 and his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1988. From 1988¿1989, he served as Judicial Clerk to the Honorable Jane R. Roth, United States District Court for the District of Delaware. (Judge Roth now sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.)