Eric S. Engel

Background & Education

Mr. Engel is a 1979 honors graduate from the University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies. Following graduation, he attended George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C. During law school, Mr. Engel clerked for the Federal Trade Commission, co-authoring a ground-breaking law review article concerning emerging issues in the cable television industry. Mr. Engel graduated from George Washington University School of Law with honors in 1982, whereupon he returned to his native California.

Mr. Engel’s practice has involved a wide variety of complex business litigation in state and federal courts, including trials litigated to verdict and judgment, as well as arbitration and mediation proceedings. Mr. Engel has pursued claims of insurance bad faith and breach of contract to judgment in favor of the policyholder, has obtained jury verdicts in favor of commercial landlords and tenants on breach of contract claims, and has prosecuted and defended many commercial dispute claims, including fraud, racketeering (RICO), securities violations, trade secret misappropriation, intellectual property and unfair competition. In one recent trial, Mr. Engel lead a defense trial team that obtained complete dismissal of the plaintiff’s case by establishing that the plaintiff had disposed of electronic evidence.
Mr. Engel has also been principal counsel in several appellate matters in state and federal courts. He was the principal author of the California Court of Appeal and Supreme Court briefs leading to the decisions of Jordache Enterprises, Inc. v. Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, 49 Cal. App. 4th 609 (1996), 18 Cal. 4th 739 (1998) & 1999 WL 33842865, and briefs leading to first-impression rulings on issues involving unfair competition and interference with contractual relations, such as Sebastian Int’l., Inc. v. Russolillo, 151 F.Supp. 2d 1215 and 162 F.Supp. 2d 1198 (C.D. Cal. 2001) (Carlos Moreno, J.).