Don A. Proudfoot, Jr. is an attorney with more than 40 years of experience representing clients in complex commercial litigation matters and appeals often involving international transactions and clients from other countries.Mr. Proudfoot has substantial experience in banking, trade secrets, anti-trust, real estate, personal injury (defendant and plaintiff), insurance coverage, products liability, class action litigation, employment termination, libel, claims against government entities under section 1983, and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. He has taken and defended depositions in Japan, Hong Kong, England, Italy and Russia. He has had many jury and bench trials in both federal and state trial courts in California and in federal courts in New York and New Mexico.
Mr. Proudfoot has worked on more than 70 appeals and writs. He wrote the briefs and argued a number of cases in which the published opinions established important legal precedents:
* First Empire Bank v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. (9th Cir. 1978) 572 F.2d 1361 which established FDIC liability for uniform treatment in purchase and assumptions and led to the FDIC and FSLIC adopting the “First Empire Rule”
* Monte Carlo Shirt Corp. v. Daewoo Int’l (America) (9th Cir. 1983) 707 F.2d 1054, an important common law trademark and infringement case
* Gluskin v. Atlantic Savings and Loan Assn. (1973) 32 Cal.App.3d 307, still a frequently cited case with respect to subordination clauses in real estate loan transactions
* Board of County Commissioners of San Juan County v. Liberty Group, 965 F.2d 879 (10th Cir. 1992), cert denied 506 U.S. 918 (1992) upholding the dismissal of a RICO claim and finding use of negligence as opposed to scienter instruction in Rule 10b-5 case, required reversal of a jury verdict
* Pubali Bank v. City National Bank (9th Cir.1982) 676 F.2d 1326 which established that when an advising bank presented fraudulent documents in support of a draw on a commercial letter of credit, it was liable to the issuing bank for its loss
Prior to forming Proudfoot & Quach LLP, Mr. Proudfoot practiced law with an international law firm and founded the Los Angeles litigation department of a national law firm and headed it for more than twenty years.
Education
* J.D. – Stanford Law School
Order of the Coif
Recent Developments Editor of the Stanford Law Review, Vol. 15
* B.A. – Stanford University
With honors, with great distinction
Bar Admissions
* California Southern District Court
* California Northern District Court
* California Eastern District Court
* California Central District Court
* 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
* 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
* United States Supreme Court
Activities
* Settlement Mediator for Los Angeles Superior Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Program
Distinctions
* 2005 Southern California Super Lawyer
* 2006 Southern California Super Lawyer
* 2007 Southern California Super Lawyer
*2008 Southern California Super Lawyer
*2009 Southern California Super Lawyer
*2010 Southern California Super Lawyer
* 2011 Southern California Super Lawyer
* 2012 Southern California Super Lawyer
* Martindale-Hubbell "AV" Peer Review Rated (Indicates that the attorney's peers ranked the attorney at the highest level of professional excellence.)
* 2010 Top Attorneys, Pasadena Magazine
* 2011 Top Attorneys, Pasadena Magazine
* 25th Anniversary Obtaining AV Rating
Publications
* “The Tar Baby”: Maritime Personal Injury Indemnity Actions, 20 Stan. L. Rev. 423 (1968) (cited by the United States Supreme Court, several of the federal appellate circuits, and numerous times in Gilmore and Black, The Law of Admiralty)
* Book Review, Norris, Maritime Personal Injury UCLA Law Rev. (1968)
* “Common Law Trademark Infringement, Trademark Dilution & Lanham Act—Section 43(a),” 217 PLI/PAT (1986) [Program Speaker]
