Richard L. Seabolt is co-head of the Commercial, Securities and Antitrust division of Duane Morris' Trial Practice Group. Mr. Seabolt practices in the area of litigation, with a focus on complex trials and appeals arising from commercial disputes, including those involving technology, construction and insurance.

During his more than 30 years as a lawyer, Mr. Seabolt has tried a number of multimillion-dollar cases to defense verdicts, including a jury trial that was profiled on the front page of the National Law Journal as among the largest cases tried to a defense verdict in 1992.

Mr. Seabolt is a past chair of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California and currently serves as an advisor, having previously chaired its Jury Instruction Committee and Technology Committee. He also serves on the Board of Governors of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL), Northern California Chapter, and is on the California Judicial Council's Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions (CACI Committee). Mr. Seabolt is a member of the American Arbitration Association's Large Complex Case Panel and is a former president of the Defense Seminar Association of San Francisco. He is an editorial consultant/author of the LexisNexis Matthew Bender California Practice Guides California Pretrial Civil Procedure and California Civil Discovery. Mr. Seabolt is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Who's Who in America, and the Northern California Super Lawyers list. He frequently speaks on civil litigation topics and topics involving his particular practice areas, including a presentation on "Complex Litigation" sponsored by JAMS for JAMS judges.

Mr. Seabolt is a 1975 graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a graduate, with distinction, of the University of Michigan.

Representative Matters

Airis v. City and County of San Francisco - Commercial Litigation - Plaintiff's jury verdict in May-June 2007 trial in favor of world's largest air cargo developer arising from planned quarter-billion dollar air cargo facility at SFO. The verdict against the City was based on a unanimous jury finding that the City's Airport staff breached its contract duties under a San Francisco Airport Commission-awarded Exclusive Negotiation Agreement by unfairly interfering with the approval process before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
PeopleData v. Yahoo! - Commercial Litigation - representation of Yahoo! in defense of breach of "pay-per-click" advertising contract and various related tort claims and prosecution of cross-complaint for successor liability and fraudulent conveyance of business assets. Matter was successfully settled.
Hool and Meeker v. Village Roadshow Limited - Commercial Litigation - representation of independent movie producers in fraudulent conveyance action against entertainment industry conglomerate based on transfer of business and employees of a corporate subsidiary following arbitration award and judgment, which with interest totaled $40 million. Case settled after defeating summary judgment motions and within one month of trial.
Pacific Resources v. ULR - Commercial Litigation - successful defense, including recovery of defense attorneys' fees in a three-judge arbitration panel dispute involving breach of contract/fiduciary duty claims associated with the dissolution of a financial consulting joint venture
FMC v. London Market Insurers - Insurance Coverage - defense jury verdict in FMC's $20 million claim for environmental cleanup at its Mouat site (later reported at FMC Corporation v. Plaisted and Companies, 62 Cal.App.4th 1132, 1165-1179 (1998).
Aerojet-General v. Cheshire and Companies - Insurance Coverage Litigation - Mr. Seabolt was lead defense counsel in Aerojet-General Corp. v. Transport Indemnity Co., a ten-month, four-phase trial (including two jury trial phases) in a specially constructed, converted auditorium courtroom involving more than 30 other law firms. After three months of trial, the jury returned a unanimous defense verdict, rejecting Aerojet's claim against its insurers for pollution cleanup costs estimated at between $500 million to $1 billion. The National Law Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal highlighted the case as among the largest jury trials tried to a defense verdict in 1992. Mr. Seabolt's opening statement in that case has been published in Environmental Insurance Litigation (Shepard's/ McGraw-Hill 1992). The California Supreme Court later affirmed the defense verdict on Aerojet's indemnity claim. Aerojet-General v. Transport 17 Cal.4th 38 (1997). The Court of Appeal later affirmed the res judicata effect of that judgment and quoted part of Mr. Seabolt's closing argument at the original trial. See, Aerojet-General Corp. v. American Excess, 97 Cal.App.4th 387, 412 (Feb. 2002).
Kelly v. Alexander Grant - Commercial Litigation - successful defense of preliminary injunction and arbitration brought by a national accounting firm against key Tax partner under partnership noncompete clause.
Briscoe v. Morrison-Knudsen - Construction Litigation - successful defense of construction manager in a $30 million construction delay case involving an advanced wastewater treatment plant (other aspects of the case reported at Frank Briscoe Co. v. Clark County, 857 F.2d 606 (9th Cir. 1988)).
Morrison-Knudsen v. Kaiser Cement - Construction Litigation - International Chamber of Commerce arbitration arising from the construction of a cement plant in Indonesia.
Other Construction Litigation Matters - representation of contractor for construction contract delay claim arising from the construction of the Trans-Panama Pipeline, defense of design engineers arising from dam failures at Winslow, Arizona and Bajo Piura, Peru, defense of design engineer on San Francisco Muni-Metro Rail Center
Representation of the company that developed the first computerized engraving system in a trade secret dispute.

Professional Activities

Advisor, Litigation Section, State Bar of California
(Chair, 2005-2006, Member of the Executive Committee or Officer, 2001-2005)
Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Northern California Chapter
- Board of Governors
California Judicial Council
- Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions
American Arbitration Association
- Large Complex Case Panel
Defense Seminar Association of San Francisco
- President (1992)

Admissions

California
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California
U.S. Supreme Court

Education

University of California, Hastings College of the Law, J.D., 1975
University of Michigan, B.G.S., with distinction, 1971

Experience

Hancock Rothert & Bunshoft LLP
- Partner, 1982-2005
- Associate, 1975-1981
Duane Morris LLP
- Partner, 2006-present

Honors and Awards

Listed in:
- The Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation and Insurance
- Chambers USA - America's Leading Lawyers for Business
- Northern California Super Lawyers, Business Litigation
- Who's Who in America

Selected Publications

"E-Discovery: From Avoiding Malpractice to Gaining a Litigation Edge," California Litigation, Winter 2006
"Legal London and the Courts of England," California Litigation, Fall 2006
"Stay Connected," California Litigation, Spring 2006
"Video Recording of Trial Testimony for Closing Argument," California Litigation, December 1, 2004
"The Demand for Public Judicial Review in Private Dispute Resolution: How to Obtain It," Association of Corporate Counsel - SF Bay Chapter's June 2004 Newsletter, June 1, 2004
California Pretrial Civil Procedure and California Civil Discovery, LexisNexis Matthew Bender California Practice Guides, co-author and editorial consultant, October 2003 and ongoing
"Lost Profits Damages: From Expert Testimony Through Jury Instructions," California Litigation, May 1, 2003
"The Pattern of Successful Defense Jury Verdicts in California Environmental Coverage Cases," Mealey's Litigation Report, June 20, 2000
"Technology Spurs New Contract-Formation Disputes," San Francisco Daily Journal, September 20, 1999
"Victorious, Unheralded - The NLJ Examines Some of the Biggest Wins for Civil Defendants," The National Law Journal, March 15, 1993

Selected Speaking Engagements

Panelist, "Notes from the Jury Box: Jury Trials in Complex Construction Cases" Construction SuperConference 07 San Francisco, The Palace Hotel, San Francisco, December 14, 2007
Panelist, "Planning, Managing and Winning Jury Trials in the 21st Century" with Judge Victoria G. Chaney (Los Angeles - Complex) and Judge Jon S. Tigar (Alameda), hosted by State Bar of California - California Judges Association - California Judicial Council - Biannual Joint Conference, Anaheim, September 29, 2007
Panelist, "E-Discovery" panel discussion with Prof. Richard Marcus, principal author of new Federal Rules on e-Discovery, hosted by UC Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, July 12, 2007
Panelist, "The Litigator's Perspective," Annual Meeting of Presiding Judges of California's 58 counties, hosted by California Judicial Council, San Francisco, January 12, 2007
Panelist, "E-Discovery and Strategies under the New Federal Rules," Teleconference, September 27, 2006
Featured speaker, Topic: Electronic Litigation Risk Management Issues, annual meeting of the Association of Corporate Counsel, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, San Francisco, California, March 23, 2006
Panelist, "Special Jury Instructions," California Judicial Council's Annual Civil Law Institute held in San Diego, California, March 8-9, 2006
"Dispute Resolution Solutions: Protecting Your Company & Its Assets," 2005 International Client Seminar, sponsored by the American Law Firm Association, Boca Raton, Florida, March 10-12, 2005
"Negotiating and Drafting the Right Dispute Provisions - From the Litigator's Perspective," sponsored by Association of Corporate Counsel - America, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, Garden Court Hotel, Palo Alto and the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, California, April 20-21, 2004
"Corporate Internal Investigations/Audits and the Attorney-Client Privilege," sponsored by Association of Corporate Counsel America (AAC-A), Palace Hotel, San Francisco, California and Garden Court Hotel, Palo Alto, California, June 9, 2005 and June 10, 2005; also presented to Bay Area General Counsel Group, City Club, San Francisco, November 1, 2005
"The Art of Trying Cases, Champions of the Courtroom," sponsored by State Bar of California, Litigation Section, Silverado Resort, Napa, California, April 16, 2004
"CACI: California's New Civil Jury Instructions," sponsored by CEB-California. Co-sponsored by the California State Bar, Litigation Section, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California, January 23, 2004
"CACI: California's New Civil Jury Instructions," sponsored by CEB-California. Co-sponsored by the California State Bar, Litigation Section, Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, California, January 9, 2004
"Evaluating and Proving Damages in Business Litigation," sponsored by CEB-California, Crown Plaza Hotel Savoy, San Francisco, California, November 15, 2003