Glen Kulik, Don Gottesman, Kent Mouton, Leonard Siegel and Thomas Ware were selected for inclusion in Southern California Super Lawyers 2009® as published in the February 2009 edition of Los Angeles Magazine.

Kent Mouton’s real estate practice group closed $1 Billion of real estate acquisition, disposition and financing transactions last year.

Leonard Siegel, Thomas Ware, and Francesca Dioguardi secured a favorable published decision in Martin v. Bridgeport Community Assn., 173 Cal.App.4th 1024, which holds that CC&Rs can be enforced against tenants but tenants lack standing to enforce the CC&Rs against the Homeowners Association.

Thomas Ware and Francesca Dioguardi secured a summary judgment for a stock cooperative and one of its former directors sued for breach of fiduciary based on its operation of the Cooperative and use of proceeds from a seven figure litigation settlement.

Mitch Brachman obtained a favorable ruling in a published appellate decision establishing new law protecting the rights of California homeowners’ associations. In Evan Carolyn v. Orange Park Community Association, 2009 DJAR 13987, the Court of Appeal held that common area recreational trails enjoyed by homeowners’ association members were not subject to the Americans with Disability Act.

Glen Kulik and Daniel Reback are representing a writer in an idea theft lawsuit against the creators of the Showtime network television series "Weeds." Their client contends he is the true creator of the series, but was cut out of the deal when the show was broadcast.

Don Gottesman was named by The San Fernando Valley Business Journal as one of the “Top 25 Lawyers of the Valley” for 2007. In 2008, Mr. Gottesman represented the prevailing party on appeal in Real Estate Analytics, LLC v. Vallas (2008) 160 Cal.App.4th 463, review den. May 21, 2008, an important decision which changed the law in California regarding the specific performance of real estate purchase and sale agreements.

Len Siegel obtained a favorable ruling establishing new law in a published California Court of Appeal matter involving application of a "defendant class action."

Glen Kulik and Alisa Edelson are defending The Tornante Group (owned by former Disney president Michael Eisner) in a copyright infringement action in federal court brought by the Universal Music Group. Tornante is an investor in Veoh.com, which is an Internet Television Service Provider, the principal defendant in the case.

Glen Kulik and Alisa Edelson are representing the heir of a writer who wrote or co-wrote scripts and a book which became the basis of the famous film Raging Bull. Their client is seeking to re-establish herself as the owner of the copyright in her deceased father's written works and is suing the owners of the film Raging Bull for copyright infringement under the authority of the Rear Window case decided by the Supreme Court in 1990.

Glen Kulik and Alisa Edelson recently settled a series of lawsuits in state and federal court in California and in Illinois against the star of the VH1 reality show "The Pick Up Artist." Their client was the former partner of Erik von Markovik, known in the seduction industry as "Mystery." The case involved a variety of business interests the two shared while they were partners.

Glen Kulik has obtained several injunctions and/or summary judgments this past year, and collected attorneys fees, for several residential homeowner associations seeking to enforce their CC&Rs and other governing documents.

Len Siegel and Joseph R. Serpico recently won a special motion to strike (also known as an "anti-SLAPP" motion) in the Superior Court on behalf of five officers of a 309-unit homeowner's association. The lawsuit involves a multi-million dollar special assessment, issued to finance a large common area repair project. The anti-SLAPP motion resulted in a judgment for these defendants, removing them from the lawsuit. Additionally, KGMS prevailed in a subsequent motion for legal fees.

Thereafter, we negotiated a settlement with the 16 plaintiffs in which they dismissed our remaining clients, the defendant homeowner's association and two officers, in exchange for a waiver of costs (i.e., no monetary settlement was paid to the plaintiffs). This favorable settlement was achieved just prior to the hearing on our demurrer to plaintiff's fourth amended complaint.

Len Siegel and Thomas Ware within the last year, obtained six figure fee awards arising from the dismissal of multiple complaints pursuant to the Anti-SLAPP statute and summary judgments based on the business judgment rule and the judicial rule of deference. The Anti-SLAPP judgments were successfully argued and upheld on appeal.

Thomas Ware prevailed at trial in Orange County defeating a Sub-Association’s attempt to invalidate a uniform assessment provision in the Master Associations’ CC&Rs.

Thomas Ware and Francesca Dioguardi obtained summary judgment on a fraud claim wherein the plaintiff was seeking approximately $700,000.00 in damages. They successfully defended the Judgment on Appeal.

Len Siegel and Mitch Brachman obtained a favorable ruling dismissing claims against public access on private property.

Don Gottesman successfully defended a dental prosthetics company against a multi-million dollar claim for alleged breach of a non-competition agreement.

Joseph R. Serpico recently tried a Superior Court case to verdict on behalf of plaintiff Paragon Villas Homeowners Association. Upon trial, the Court issued a judgment in favor of our client for declaratory relief to enforce covenants, conditions and restrictions, and issued a permanent injunction. The successful judgment prevented a hostile group of condominium owners from blocking our client’s substantial common area repair project. Additionally, he defeated Defendant’s counter-claim to recall the Associations’ Board of Directors.

Joseph R. Serpico recently obtained a multi–million dollar settlement for a residential homeowner association in Long Beach. The association had sued for design and construction defects in the complex.

Joseph R. Serpico recently litigated a Superior Court lawsuit alleging breaches of covenants, conditions and restrictions on behalf of a homeowner's association and its corporate officers. After obtaining dismissals for two of our officer clients by demurrer, we filed motions for summary judgment on behalf of the remaining officers. The motions resulted in the dismissal of the case against the officers, before the motion hearing. The Court also awarded judgments of over $58,000 to our clients for legal fees. As the result of these judgments, we successfully negotiated the voluntary dismissal from the action of the "target defendant" the homeowner's association.

Glen Kulik and Len Siegel have been recent speakers on the subject of common interest development law at programs sponsored by the Community Associations Institute.

Len Siegel and Joseph R. Serpico prevailed in a derivative action against directors of a non-profit entity and were awarded attorney fees.


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