Los Angeles

Steptoe's Los Angeles office is home to high-stakes trial lawyers whose clients range from FORTUNE 50 companies and world-class financial institutions to family-owned businesses, and everything in between.

Collaborating with our colleagues across the firm, we help clients in multi-faceted disputes, including the defense of class actions and other complex litigations, as well as cross-border disputes before foreign courts, regulators, and international tribunals. Steptoe's Los Angeles-based senior litigators all have first-chair experience and have tried cases to verdict or arbitral award on behalf of financial institutions, energy utilities, insurers, consumer product and chemical manufacturers, cryptocurrency companies, mining companies, and municipalities.

Our office's core practice areas are complex commercial litigation and arbitration, financial services litigation, white-collar defense and investigations, Proposition 65 and consumer product litigation and counseling, and corporate and insolvency.

Complex Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Clients hire Steptoe when they need trial lawyers. Using our extensive trial experience, we thoughtfully strategize to meet our clients' goals in diverse practice areas, with a particular emphasis on:

• Class Action Defense
• Energy Litigation
• Financial Services Litigation
• Insurance & Reinsurance
• Privacy & Cybersecurity
• Professional Liability
• Real Estate
• Retail & E-Commerce
• Trademark and Copyright Infringement

Financial Services Litigation

Steptoe advises the full range of financial services companies in issues ranging from federal and state regulation to compliance to bet-the-company litigation. Our experience includes consumer and securities class actions, trading disputes, arbitrations, privacy and data security matters, disputes arising from financial tools and products, and industry-impacting cases involving issues such as loan servicing, debt collection, fair lending, credit reporting, and disclosures, among others.

Our clients include:

• Brokerage firms
• Credit card issuers
• Globally recognized banks
• Hedge funds
• Insurers
• Mortgage lenders
• Payment processing firms
• Private equity funds.
• Vehicle finance companies
• Vulture funds

White-Collar Defense and Investigations

Steptoe's esteemed white-collar defense practice is led by former federal prosecutors, including the former Chief of Asset Forfeiture for the Central District of California. Our lawyers have extensive experience with government investigations and prosecutions–including trials and appeals–with an emphasis on matters involving allegations of financial crimes or fraud, or seeking asset recovery, as well as matters brought by regulators at the local, state and federal levels, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the EPA's Office of Inspector General, and others. We also conduct independent investigations for boards of directors, trustees and board committees of public and privately-held companies in a wide variety of areas, including:

• Kleptocracy
• Anti-Money Laundering
• Antitrust
• Cartels & Conspiracies
• FCPA/Anti-Corruption
• Tax fraud

Consumer Product and Proposition 65 Litigation and Counseling

Steptoe's Los Angeles office has decades of experience counseling and representing a diverse mix of clients in claims and litigation related to California’s Proposition 65 toxic warnings law, consumer products laws, and compliance with state and federal laws and regulations.  

Steptoe's Los Angeles-based lawyers have extensive experience in the following areas:

• Proposition 65
• California's Unfair Competition Law
• Clean Water Act
• California’s Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Program
• Transparency in Supply Chains Act
• Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act
• California Appliance Efficiency Regulations
• Rees-Levering Auto Sales Finance Act
• Auto-Dealer Franchise Regulations
• California Vehicle Code Compliance

Corporate and Insolvency

Steptoe's Los Angeles corporate and insolvency team advises companies in all areas of corporate, securities, reorganization, and bankruptcy matters. We work with clients at every stage of the business cycle, from entity formation and early stage financing, to day-to-day advice on business and legal issues, to negotiating mergers, bankruptcy matters, acquisitions, joint ventures and dispositions, to complex financial and restructuring transactions. Our Chambers-ranked insolvency professionals offer complete coverage on all debtor and creditor services, both in and out of court, and work closely with our trial lawyers in prosecuting and defending adversary proceedings.

Private Client and Family Office Disputes

Steptoe's commercial and white-collar litigators represent high-net-worth clients in closely-held business and partnership disputes, qualified investor disputes, accredited investor disputes, and real estate litigation. Often, these disputes involve parallel or connected proceedings before general civil courts, government agencies, bankruptcy courts, private arbitrations, and family law courts. Steptoe’s expert former prosecutors, bankruptcy litigators, and commercial litigators collaborate to navigate these proceedings in a tactical and deliberate manner.

Trade Remedies

Steptoe's Los Angeles international trade practice has represented companies across a wide range of industries on international trade and investment. Steptoe discerns itself by combining trade policy and political experience with technical legal expertise. We have an unprecedented record of success in handling complex antidumping and countervailing duty matters on behalf of our international clients before the International Trade Commission, Department of Commerce, and Court of International Trade. Our experience also includes assisting clients with cross border anti-corruption investigations as well as advising clients on regulatory compliance issues such as customs compliance, sanctions, CFIUS, export control jurisdictional and classification analysis, and trade and regulatory policy.

Toxic Tort

In toxic tort and environmental cases, we have decades of experience defending the manufacturers and distributors of chemical products against personal injury, property damage, medical monitoring, injunctive relief, and cost recovery claims asserted under various state and federal laws, including CERCLA, and RCRA. Our representation often extends beyond the courtroom and into the boardroom, as environmental contamination and toxic tort claims can give rise to significant legal, financial, and public relations issues. Our team has helped leading institutions prepare and respond, minimize legal exposure, protect the reputation of management and the organization, and manage the publicity that often surrounds such litigation.