How Mark Helps Clients

Mark Kressel helps clients by first understanding their business needs and goals and how litigation can play a part in solving their problems, whether by winning on appeal, developing a multi-forum litigation or settlement strategy, or identifying vehicles to change the legal landscape. Major studios and government entities rely on Mark Kressel for his extensive multi-forum strategy and appellate advocacy capabilities. He has handled appellate matters in a wide range of areas, including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the anti-SLAPP statute, the First Amendment, punitive damages, elder abuse, wrongful death and catastrophic injury, general business litigation, premises liability, and patent infringement litigation.

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Mark joined the firm as an associate and was invited to join the partnership in 2018. Before joining the firm, Mark was a litigation associate with Irell & Manella LLP. In addition to his bar admissions, he has practiced before the U.S. International Trade Commission.

He is also the co-director of the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law's Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy Clinic, and is active in diversity and inclusion organizations including the LGBTQ+ Bar Association of Los Angeles and the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.

Prior to law school, Mark worked as a Broadway musician.

Representative Matters

Flores v. Liu (2021)
Secured an affirmance of a jury verdict, despite a finding of instructional error in the jury instructions, in a professional negligence action against a surgeon

Riley v. Kernan (2020)
Ninth Circuit reinstates prisoner’s civil rights lawsuit on religious liberty grounds

Bennett v. Rancho California Water District (2019)
Successfully won client a new trial after a jury found the public entity liable for over $800,000 for alleged employee whistleblower retaliation claimed by a plaintiff who took over a procurement contract from another vendor and then claimed he was actually a misclassified employee

Taulbee v. EJ Distribution Corp. et al. (2019)
Successfully defended a jury’s finding that our client’s truck driver was not negligent when he parked inside the freeway’s “gore point,” avoiding millions of dollars in exposure for the plaintiff’s debilitating injuries

Olivia de Havilland v. FX Networks, et al. (2018)
Successfully represented the Motion Picture Association of America and Netflix, Inc. in the California Court of Appeal in an industry-critical appeal threatening the future of docudramas and other fictionalized motion pictures about or inspired by real people or events

Ortiz v. WMC-A, Inc. (2017)
Represented a hospital in the California Court of Appeal under the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, and successfully defended a complete defense judgment from a multi-million dollar claim

Trinity River Lumber Co. v. Weaverville Community Services District (2016)
Successfully defended judgment for Weaverville Community Services District in the California Court of Appeal against a $35 million property damages claim arising from a mill fire, prevailing under Government Tort Claims Act

Donaho v. County of Yuba, et al. (2015)
Successfully defended judgment in the California Court of Appeal in favor of consortium of public transportation providers, cities, and counties, under Government Tort Claims Act, against claims of dangerous condition of public property stemming from catastrophic personal injury at a bus stop

Hoang v. IMDb.com (2015)
Represented actress in the Ninth Circuit in suit against IMDb.com for publishing her age without her consent in violation of web site terms of service and privacy agreement

Raef v. Superior Court (2015)
Represented celebrity photographer in California Supreme Court and Court of Appeal in first ever criminal prosecution under California’s new anti-paparazzi driving statute, raising First Amendment defense

Santos M. v. Superior Court (2015)
Won petition for writ of mandamus in favor of juvenile immigrant entitled to relief from deportation proceedings under Special Immigrant Juvenile Status program. Represented petition pro bono in California Court of Appeal, in coordination with Immigrant Defenders Law Center

Education

• Yale Law School
  J.D., 2007
• Yale University
  B.A., cum laude, 1996

Clerkships

• Hon. Jay S. Bybee, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit (2007-2008)

Bar Admissions

• California
• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, for the Federal Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of California

Professional Associations

• Association of Southern California Defense Counsel
• California Society for Healthcare Attorneys
• Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), 2015 Fellow, annual participant in 1L Summer Scholar Program. 
• American Bar Association: Chair Elect of the American Bar Association's Council of Appellate Lawyers (CAL) and 2018 CAL Chair of the Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit.
• Los Angeles County Bar Association, Barristers Section: Past President 
• LGBTQ+ Bar Association of Los Angeles, Member

Awards

• Super Lawyers (2020)
• Super Lawyers "Rising Star" (2013-2017)
• The Recorder’s Lawyers on the Fast Track (2013)

Publications

• Supreme Court Changing Where You Can Be Sued (Summer 2019), Vol. 16, No. 2, Today's General Counsel, p. 57
• Breaking Up (The 9th) Is Hard To Do (July 31, 2017) Law360
• Make the Barristers a First Step toward Professional Achievement (July/Aug. 2013) Los Angeles Lawyer, p. 12
• Review at the U.S. International Trade Commission, American Bar Association, Appellate Practice, Spring 2012, Vol. 31, No. 3 (June 28, 2012)
• Protecting Intellectual Property Rights with the ITC (Dec. 2011) Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine, p. 10
• University Inventions, Stanford v. Roche, IPEG.com (Nov. 2010)
• The Proposition 8 Challenge: Is There Jurisdiction For Appellate Review? Century City Lawyer (Sept. 2010)
• Note, Contractual Waiver of Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege, 116 Yale L.J. 412 (2006)