Kyle Batter is an Of Counsel in Quinn Emanuel’s Silicon Valley office. He represents plaintiffs and defendants in trials, arbitrations, mediations, and appeals in jurisdictions across the country, focusing his practice on high-stakes commercial litigation for some of the largest tech companies in the world, as well as Silicon Valley startups and the venture capital firms that support them. His diverse practice includes cases alleging breach of contract, trade secret theft, securities violations, fraud, extortion, patent infringement, and wrongful termination from employment. He has extensive experience litigating cases at all stages, including taking and defending depositions, leading factual investigations, managing all aspects of discovery, preparing dispositive motions, arguing before the court, and going to trial. Representative clients include Tesla, Elon Musk, Samsung, Virgin Orbit, Peloton, Chime, Sequoia Capital, Cruise, Seed Beauty, The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and LendingClub, among others.
Kyle received his law degree from the USC Gould School of Law, where he was a finalist in the Hale Moot Court Honors Program, arguing before members of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. While finishing his law degree, Kyle worked for Judge R. Gary Klausner (Central District of California) and thereafter Judge Alex Kozinski (former Chief Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals).
- Represented Elon Musk, Tesla, and its entire Board of Directors in a federal jury trial and obtained a unanimous defense verdict in a class action alleging securities fraud and seeking damages of up to $12 billion. The verdict was publicized around the globe and The American Lawyer named the Quinn team “Litigators of the Week.”
- Represented a tech billionaire/former partner of a major venture capital firm in an action alleging extortion, fraud, and civil harassment. Obtained a complete dismissal of the opposing party’s claims and won a clean sweep at trial on all counterclaims, which included a $14 million judgment.
- Represented Seed Beauty, a cosmetic startup that has since taken the entire industry by storm, and obtained a significant eight-figure settlement in a case alleging trade secret theft against some of the largest beauty companies in the world.
- Represented Virgin Orbit in a breach of contract dispute concerning a $100+ million agreement to launch satellites into space. The case resolved favorably after the opposing party declared bankruptcy.
- Represented one of the most prominent fitness and exercise brands in the business in an arbitration brought by the vendor that manufactured our client’s exercise bikes. The case settled on the eve of the arbitration for a tiny fraction of the vendor’s initial demand.
- Represented self-driving-car startup Cruise (now owned by GM) in a trademark dispute against Ford. The case resolved favorably shortly after the preliminary injunction hearing, with Cruise continuing to use its valuable trademarks.
- Represented multinational investment bank GCA Corporation (now owned by Houlihan Lokey) in a breach of contract and wrongful termination suit brought by one of GCA’s former Managing Directors. The employee settled for pennies on the dollar after we prevailed at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to have the employee’s claims compelled to arbitration.
- Represented the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in a breach of contract and wrongful termination suit brought by one of the bank’s former executives. The employee agreed to walk away for less than nuisance value shortly after we filed a motion to dismiss the employee’s case.
- University of Southern California, Gould School of Law
(J.D., 2014)- Hale Moot Court Honors Program Finalist
- Berklee College of Music
(B.A., summa cum laude, Music Composition and Film Scoring, 2005)
- The State Bar of California