James Gustafson is a successful civil litigation and trial attorney and has been honing his craft since 1986. Jim has worked for some of the largest and most prestigious law firms in California and ran his own law firm for over twenty years.

Jim’s experience includes insurance defense, personal injury, employment, business, and real estate litigation, as well as all aspects of telecommunications law. In 1998, Jim’s firm was the successful bidder in a request for proposals from AT&T Corp., AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., and Lucent Technologies, and was awarded all business, telecommunications, and employment litigation in the state of California.

During his rewarding career, Jim has successfully handled over thirty jury trials with a record of only one loss. Jim has also handled countless bench trials, arbitrations, significant mediations, and historic settlements. Among many others, a few of Jim’s jury trial victories include:

• Winning a motion for a new trial, resulting in a $5.7 million reduction of a jury award in an unfair competition case
• Winning summary judgment against a City, resulting in an award of a $16 million contract for his client
• Obtaining a defense verdict for a client in a two-month jury trial in an antitrust case
• Defending a multi-billion dollar unfair competition case against AT&T Corp in U.S. District Court following a three-month jury trial

Jim’s excellent writing skills have also led to successful results in published decisions, such as:

• Evanns vs. AT&T Corp., 229 F.3d 837 (9th Cir. 2000) cert. denied 533 U.S. 911 (2001): After winning a motion to dismiss a consumer class action suit against all of AT&T’s consumer customers in the United States seeking $20 billion in damages, Jim successfully defended the judgment of dismissal in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and subsequently the United States Supreme Court.
• City of Pasadena v. AT&T Communications, Inc., 103 Cal. App. 4 th 981 (2002): Jim won appeal reversing summary judgment sua sponte, granting instead summary judgment in favor of his client, AT&T Communications, Inc., against the City of Pasadena over payment of a utility user tax.
• AT&T Corp. v. Community Health Group, 931 F. Supp. 719 (SD Cal. 1995): Jim won summary judgment in favor of AT&T Corp. on a significant case involving uniform enforcement of AT&T Corp.’s nationally filed rate tariffs.

In his free time, Jim enjoys cooking, equestrian sports, watching college football, spending time with his family, and taking his beloved dachshund, Rayna, for long walks.