NICHOLAS A. CARLIN, Partner, specializes in complex litigation including consumer class actions, intellectual property, business and financial disputes, entertainment, employment, health care, personal injury and product liability cases in both the state and federal courts. He also consults and handles transactional matters in the areas of technology law, intellectual property and renewable energy.

Nick's current cases of national significance include the nationwide federal multidistrict litigation on behalf of consumers against Bank of America, Wells Fargo and most of the other major US banks for manipulating the processing of customer debit card purchases to maximize overdraft fees. Instead of posting each transaction chronologically, the banks deducted the largest charges first, drawing down balances more rapidly and triggering overdraft fees. Nick serves as co-team leader for the case against Bank of America, which settled for $410 million. Nick was recently honored to be named a finalist for Consumer Attorney of the Year by the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) for his work on this case.

Nick (along with firm attorney David Given) is co-lead counsel in the nationwide class action brought by recording artists Rick James, Dave Mason, The Temptations and others against the world's largest record company, Universal Music Group (UMG), for failing to pay the proper royalty rate for sales of digital music through iTunes and other digital music providers. Instead of paying its artists at the 50% rate for such sales, UMG paid them at the much lower (usually 10-15%) rate on the pretext that its deals with the digital music providers were not licenses but rather sale-resale agreements. The 9th Circuit has held in a related case that such arrangements were in fact licenses and not resale agreements. Nick is also co-lead on similar cases against Warner Music and EMI.

Nick is also leading the effort in California to stop the illegal practice of "balance billing". Illegal balance billing occurs when a hospital or other health care provider bills the patient for more than the patient's health insurance company deems reasonable. Nick is lead counsel in the class action against the City and County of San Francisco which recently settled, subject to court approval.

Nick's entertainment/intellectual property practice includes such nationally prominent cases as the song infringement case brought by the legendary power pop band The Rubinoos against pop superstar Avril Lavigne alleging that her megahit song "Girlfriend" was copied from The Rubinoos hit song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," the case against pop superstar Selena Gomez and her songwriters alleging that her hit song "A Year Without Rain" infringed on the song "Buy a Dog" by San Francisco Bay Area band "Luce," and the authorship dispute over the six-time platinum hit song "Come What May" from the hit film Moulin Rouge. Nick also recently obtained the largest settlement to date ($600,000) in a right of publicity case for non-celebrities.

Nick also represents victims of financial fraud and abuse, including the case on behalf of Pyramid Interactive, Inc. against disgraced former hedge fund manager Lawrence "Larry" Goldfarb.

Nick further manages an active personal injury/product liability practice which includes catastrophic injury cases resulting from defective tires sold by tire manufacturers such as Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.

Nick also specializes in employment disputes including wage and hour cases and leaving employee trade secrets cases (i.e., cases where an employee quits or is fired from a job and is then accused of misappropriating the former employer's trade secrets), successfully obtaining justice for both wronged employers and wrongfully accused employees.

Nick's business/transactional practice includes representation of technology companies, internet marketing and advertising companies and renewable energy companies. Nick's experience as an entrepreneur and CEO of a technology company gives him unique insight into the issues of such clients.

Nick is also a registered US Patent Agent. He has taught at Hastings College of the Law, the University of California at Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall), and the University of San Francisco School of Law.