Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Year Joined Organization: 1988

Lawyer Overview

Business litigation with a focus on trial and appellate proceedings relating to real property, securities, and insurance.

• Real Estate Litigation: Extensive experience representing property owners, lessors, lessees, and other interested parties in a wide variety of real estate litigation, including complex landlord-tenant disputes and actions for condemnation, judicial foreclosure, partition, quiet title, nuisance, and trespass
  
  
• Securities Litigation: Representation of publicly held companies in state and federal courts in California and Delaware in actions for securities fraud under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, for false or misleading statements in connection with initial public offerings and proxy materials, and against a hostile bidder for a publicly traded manufacturer of computer printers. Represented investors in claims against their brokers for fraud, professional malpractice, negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty.
  
  
• Insurance Litigation: Representation of insureds in complex insurance coverage disputes involving a variety of policies, including commercial general liability, directors and officers, errors and omissions, remediation, business interruption, workers compensation, fidelity bonds, motion picture and television liability, homeowners, uninsured motorist, and various types of first-party property coverage. Insureds' representation has been in areas of: (a) business litigation; (b) environmental coverage; (c) copyright and false advertising claims against motion picture producers; (d) wrongful termination; and (e) broker negligence. In conjunction with Public Counsel, Mr. Leonard also represented on a pro bono basis several small business owners whose businesses were burned and/or looted in the 1992 Los Angeles riot.

Areas of Practice

• Litigation

West Practice Categories

Litigation & Appeals

Bar Admissions

• California, 1988
• U.S. District Court Central District of California, 1989
• U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1990
• U.S. District Court Northern District of California, 1990
• U.S. District Court Southern District of California, 1991

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Los Angeles County Bar Association, Real Estate Litigation Section (Member, Steering Committee)

Education

• University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, Los Angeles, California, 1988
  J.D.
• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1984
  B.A.

Address

11377 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Phones

(310) 312-3723

Faxes

(310) 312-3788

Emails

Contact Us

Websites

http://www.msk.com