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Mr. Morgan's practice focuses primarily on complex business litigation.  He has also defended financial institutions in matters ranging from loan fraud to wage and hour class actions.  Mr. Morgan has particular experience in all aspects of class action litigation, particularly consumer fraud actions.  He has represented clients in more than 70 consumer class and representative actions, in 10 different states.  He has defeated class certification in more than 90% of his consumer cases that have reached that stage. 

Mr. Morgan was recently recognized by The Daily Journal as one of the top 20 lawyers under 40 years of age, and was named a Southern California "Superlawyer" for 2005-2007.

Bank One

Computer Sciences Corporation 

Delphi

Fidelity Federal

First USA

Gateway

Hitachi

Home Depot

Hughes Electronics

IBM

Shell Oil

Time, Inc.

Washington Mutual

Represented IBM in nine separate consumer fraud class actions in nine different states alleging defective hard disk drives.  Three of these cases reached the certification stage; and the firm defeated certification in all three.  Two of the other actions were dismissed outright.  The remaining cases then promptly settled on very favorable terms.

Represented Home Depot in a nationwide class action alleging the company was selling a gas grill prone to catastrophic fires.  The plaintiff sought injunctive relief and damages, including return of the purchase price for every grill. The plaintiff initially moved for a preliminary injunction barring further sales, which the firm defeated. A few months later the plaintiff moved for class certification, seeking among other things that Home Depot be required to send a representative to inspect every grill in the hands of consumers. A federal judge in Los Angeles denied plaintiff's certification motion in its entirety. The court ruled that the proposed class definition was overbroad and that the plaintiff was not typical of the other consumers he sought to represent.

Obtained summary judgment on behalf of Time, Inc. in a federal court consumer class action arising from a magazine subscription promotion.  Following plaintiff's motion for class certification, Mr. Morgan's team formulated a strategy to file a motion for summary judgment along with its opposition to class certification to give the court an alternative basis to resolve the action.  The motions were simultaneously briefed and set for hearing on the same date.  The strategy worked, as the court granted the motion for summary judgment and dismissed the action without reaching the issues related to class certification.   

On behalf of Washington Mutual Bank, Mr. Morgan defeated certification of a 23 state consumer class action alleging violations of consumer fraud statutes and other common law causes of action.  The bank was alleged to have used deceptive practices in marketing life insurance.

Mr. Morgan was recently brought in to defend a pending class action against an ERA Realty affiliate in a significant breach of contract case involving hundreds of real estate brokers who alleged the company improperly deducted fees from their commissions.  When retained, the certification hearing briefing was set to begin in a few weeks, and the defense had not yet taken any discovery.  Mr. Morgan's team immediately identified the facts that mattered, took expedited discovery, and defeated certification and a motion for reconsideration. 

We represented Washington Mutual Bank in a wage and hour class action alleging improper deductions from employee wages.  Before answering the Complaint, Mr. Morgan's team developed a novel federal preemption defense to the claims based on laws governing the financial stability of federally regulated lending institutions.  Upon being served with a draft demurrer raising this preemption defense, the plaintiff dismissed his case. 

Defeated class certification on behalf of IBM in a nationwide class action that stemmed from their investment of millions of dollars in three Internet start-up companies who were part of IBM's "Business Partner" program.  When those companies went bankrupt, the investors sued IBM, claiming they had invested on the belief IBM would stand behind the investments in these start-up companies.  Mr. Morgan persuaded the trial court class certification was inappropriate because individual factual issues involved in each claim swamped any common issues.  The plaintiffs appealed, arguing that the trial court should have presumed class-wide reliance on, and the materiality of, the alleged misstatements and omissions.  But Mr. Morgan argued that deposition testimony from several putative class members showed each had received different written marketing materials and oral representations before making their investments.  In a 16-page opinion, the Court of Appeal agreed, holding that "this is simply not the case to presume reliance upon, or the materiality of, the defendant's alleged misrepresentation." 

Won summary judgment for IBM in a $20 million federal RICO action.  The plaintiff, one of the country's largest processors of Internet credit card transactions, sued several companies it alleged had misappropriated millions of dollars of credit card proceeds.  Our client was added as a defendant late in the case, with the discovery cut-off and trial date approaching, apparently counting on the fact that the firm would seek a continuance the plaintiff additional time to get its case together.  Instead, Mr. Morgan's team took full advantage of the impending trial date.  It immediately noticed the depositions of the plaintiff's principals for all the days of discovery that remained.  The plaintiff was left with no documents and no time to depose IBM's witnesses.  Without our client having had to produce a single document in discovery, Mr. Morgan persuaded the court to grant summary judgment in IBM's favor.  On an appeal to the Ninth Circuit also defended by Mr. Morgan, IBM won a 2-1 affirmance.