Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Lawyer Overview

Rick McKnight's practice focuses primarily on complex business litigation, including successful bench and jury trials involving antitrust, contract, securities, oil and gas, health care, fraud, intellectual property, business tort, ERISA, entertainment, product liability, bankruptcy, environmental, and tax matters. He has tried cases in such venues as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Wilmington, Palm Springs, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Rick also has been active in alternative forms of dispute resolution and has both recovered and defeated substantial punitive damages awards.

In Tellez v. Dole, Rick was the lead lawyer for Dole Food Company in the five-month trial of the claims of Nicaraguan banana workers who alleged their sterility was caused by their exposure to pesticides on Dole's farms during the 1970s. Of the original 42 plaintiffs selected from thousands of claimants worldwide, only four were awarded damages and their aggregate award was less than plaintiffs' costs.

Rick is currently aiding the defense of Yamaha Motor Company in a series of product liability claims throughout the United States relating to alleged rollovers of a recreational utility vehicle.

Rick is Partner-in-Charge of the Los Angeles Office. He frequently lectures on trial and pretrial practice and procedure for the Federal Practice Institute, the Los Angeles Barristers, the Federal Bar Association, the Bankruptcy Judges Conference, the American Bar Association Corporate Counsel Program, and the Los Angeles Complex Court Symposium Program. Rick serves on the board of directors of St. Vincent Medical Center.

Areas of Practice

• Trial Practice
• Alternative Dispute Resolution & Mediation
• Securities and Shareholder Litigation & SEC Enforcement
• Antitrust & Competition Law
• Product Liability & Tort Litigation

Representative Cases

• Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority v. BNSF Railway Company, et al.
• Allstar Inns Operating L.P. v. Herrick & Campbell, et al., Case No. C584 745 (Cal. Sup. Ct., Los Angeles Cty.)
• Andrade, et al. v. The Parsons Corporation, etc., et al. (U.S.D.C., C.D. Cal.)
• Automobile Club v. Southern California v. Mellon Bank (DE) National Association, 299 F. Supp. 2d 1032 (C.D. Cal.)
• Avant Incorporated v. Polaroid Corporation, 572 F.2d 889, 197 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 593
• Clifford v. Lo-Jack (U.S.D.C., C.D. Cal.; U.S. 9th Cir.)
• Del Monte v. Dole (U.S.D.C., S.D. Fla.)
• Desert Hospital Corporation v. Mark A. Smith, M.D. and Erwin C. Demiany, M.D. (Cal. Sup. Ct., Riverside Cty., Indio Branch)
• Desert Professional Building Partners v. Desert Hospital (Cal. Sup. Ct., Riverside Cty., Indio Div.)
• Eileen Roddenberry v. Estate of Gene Roddenberry (L.A. Sup. Ct., Central West)
• Hennings v. Shearson Hayden Stone Inc. (U.S.D.C., D.C.)
• In re AM International Inc. (U.S. Bankr. Ct., N.D. Ill., E. Div.)
• Katz v. Shearson Hyden Stone, Inc., 438 F. Supp. 637
• Matevosyan v. Schulze, 05H01650
• Obayashi Corporation v. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• Phillips Petroleum Company v. Arco Alaska Inc., Del. Ch. LEXIS 77
• Tellez v. Dole, L.A. Sup. Ct., Central West (2007)
• The Savant Group, Inc. et al. v. PepsiCo U.S.D.C. C.D. Cal.
• United States ex rel. Englund v. Los Angeles County (E.D. Cal. Oct. 31, 2006)
• United States of America v. CBS Inc., U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18925 (C.D. Cal.)
• United States of America v. Schaake Packing Co., Inc., et al. (U.S.D.C., W.D. Wash.)
• Yoder Brothers, Inc. v. California-Florida Plant Corporation, et al., 537 F.2d 1347
• Zenith Insurance Company v. Leonard Breslaw, et al. (U.S.D.C., C.D. Cal.)
• Intellectual Property
• Shareholder Cases
• Tax Claim

West Practice Categories

Alcoholic Beverages, Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Antitrust Law, Apparel, Asbestos, Bankruptcy Litigation, Business & Commercial Law, Capital Markets, Chemicals & Cosmetics, Class Actions, Commodities, Complex Litigation, Deceptive Trade Practices, Federal Appellate Practice, Federal Claims Court, Federal Trial Practice, Firearms, Food & Agricultural Products, Foreign Investment, International Antitrust, International Trade Litigation, Litigation & Appeals, Machinery & Tools, Medical Products & Devices, Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures, Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures, Military & Veterans Appeals, Motor Vehicle Defects, Multidistrict Litigation, Patent Litigation, Pharmaceutical Products, Private Placements, Products Liability Law, Public Offerings, Recreational Products, RICO Act, Securities Fraud & Insider Trading, Securities Law, Securities Regulation, State Appellate Practice, State Trial Practice, Tax Litigation, Tobacco, Trade Regulation, Unfair Competition, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, US Supreme Court

Bar Admissions

• California
• New York

Education

• U of California - Berkeley

Published Works

• The Top 100 and How They Got There, Daily Journal Corporation, 2008

Address

555 South Flower Street
Fiftieth Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071-2300

Phones

1.213.243.2777 (Business Phone)

Faxes

1.213.243.2539 (Business Fax)

Emails

Contact Us (Business Email)

Websites

http://www.jonesday.com