Page 5 - Sheppard Mullin Alumni News Newsletter_Winter 2021

• ALUMNI NEWS • WINTER 2021
HELPING CLIENTS SUCCEED
Sheppard Mullin lawyers work on a wide range of litigation and transactions to help our clients succeed. Here are just a few examples of our work over the last quarter:
Cameo ̶ We represented Cameo, an online celebrity marketplace, in its acquisition of Represent, a marketing and merchandising platform that builds direct-to-fan brands for top celebrities. This marks Cameo’s first acquisition. According to Cameo, “The acquisition will expand and diversify Cameo’s existing talent pool, introduce fun new ways for talent and fans to connect, establish new revenue opportunities for talent on the platform, and provide the entire Cameo community with a new way to fundraise for non-profit organizations.” Century City partner Dan Belzer led this deal.
Coty, A3, Wella and P&G – We won summary judgment on all claims brought by a Clairol model alleging improper use of her image on Clairol products sold internationally. Sheppard Mullin represented clients Coty, A3, Wella and Proctor & Gamble in this three-year litigation in New York Supreme Court. The Court granted summary judgment on the eve of trial scheduled to start on September 27. Plaintiff had made a pre-trial settlement demand of $8 million but we were able to invalidate theories of oral agreements and amendments through discovery. A further central issue was whether the clients were responsible for sales that post-dated the expiration of licensing rights. Sheppard Mullin was able to demonstrate during discovery that the post- expiration sales were made by aggregators and diverters, and that Coty and P&G took all proper actions within their control to abide by the licensing terms. New York partner Rob Friedman led the defense of this matter
Fortistar ̶ A Sheppard Mullin deal team advised Fortistar, a privately owned investment firm, and its portfolio company OPAL Fuels LLC, a leading vertically integrated producer and distributor of renewable natural gas, in its agreement to combine with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp. II (Nasdaq: ACTD) (“ArcLight”), a publicly traded, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), that will result in OPAL Fuels becoming a publicly listed company with a value of $1.75 billion. Upon closing, the combined company will be listed on the Nasdaq Exchange under the ticker symbol “OPL”. The team was led by partners Andy Felner (New York) and John Booher (Palo Alto), with multiple other attorneys throughout the firm providing assistance.
Granite Rock ̶ After eight years of litigation, we prevailed for Granite Rock with the Court of Appeal affirming denial of class certification in a case involving an alleged facially unlawful policy. Despite many cases before it certifying very similar classes because the policy omitted the phrase “or major fraction thereof,” the Sheppard Mullin team was able to convince the judge that the evidence we presented defeated commonality and demonstrated Plaintiff was an inadequate representative. At mediation, the client became upset at plaintiff’s counsel for their blatant efforts at a shake-down settlement, and instead the client instructed us to “go beat them”, which we did. After obtaining denial of class certification in 2017, in August 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld that decision relying on the arguments we made in the trial court. Palo Alto partner Paul Cowie led the defense of this matter, with Mike Giacinti (an alum, now Director, Corporate Counsel - Labor & Employment Director for Digital Reality) and others.
SecurityPoint Holdings – A Sheppard Mullin trial team led by partners Brad Graveline (Chicago) and Laura Burson (Los Angeles) obtained one of the largest patent infringement damages awards against the United States for client SecurityPoint Holdings, Inc. On October 22, the United States Court of Federal Claims released an opinion awarding SecurityPoint more than $100 million in damages for the United States’ unauthorized use of SecurityPoint’s U.S. Patent No. 6,888,460, which claims a method of moving and processing trays with carts in security screening checkpoints at all Cat X and Cat I airports in the United States. In addition, the Court held that SecurityPoint is also entitled to delay damages and additional damages for the United States’ continuing infringement of the patent after the close of fact discovery. The parties agree that these additional damages will be at least another $30 million, making this one of the largest, if not the largest, damages award ever against the United States
UrgentMED – We represented the UrgentMED group companies, an independent network of 35 urgent care clinics in Southern California, in the sale of their equity to Quilvest Capital partners, a global investment firm with more than $16 billion of assets under management. The acquisition included a significant rollover by the founding doctors of UrgentMED and provides the necessary capital to continue to grow the network of urgent care clinics in California and beyond. Century City partner Aytan Dahukey and Los Angeles partner Larry Braun led this deal.
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