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PAUL R
- 1. PAUL R. KATZ 858.759.1679 UCLA’72 A.B. UCLA’75 J.D. I workedthroughoutlawschool doingappellate briefsforbothindigentandpayingcriminalsatthe Law Officesof Olsen&SorrentinoandThe Law Officesof Paul Caruso.Of the 11 briefs,2wentup to the State Supreme Court and were decided whileIwasstill inschool. One,Peoplev.Kelly,a135 brief with manyamicus insupport,resultedinaunanimousdecisionthatestablishedthe conceptof proving acceptance inthe scientificcommunityof evidence before allowingittogo before ajury. Overtime it became knownasthe Kelly-Fryestandard. AfterdecidingIdidn’twanttoworkwithcriminals,IjoinedLawry’sFoodsasin-house corporate counsel, performinganumberof legal andnon-legal duties,e.g.,handlingthe company insurance program. Of note, theywere underaFTC consent decree forviolatingthe Robinson-PatmanactandI reviewedall salesandmarketingprograms forcompliance.Theywere purchasedbyUnilever,myfunctionwas movedtoEnglewoodCliffs,NJandIleft. I joinedAddressographMultigraph,aFortune 500 company,responsible companywide forreal estate and employment,aswell asgeneral counsel to tworecentlypurchasedhigh techcompaniesthatwere intendedtochartthe future. TheywentintobankruptcyandI left. At AmericanMedical International,apubliclytradedhealthcare chain,Iwasresponsible forhospital, ambulatorysurgical centeranddiagnosticimagingcenteracquisitions. All cashforstock or assetdeals and some jointventures. Ialsorepresentedthe diagnosticimagingchainandPHS,a providerof data processingservicestothe chainandthirdparty facilities, closingdealswithinstitutions suchasStanford UniversityHospital andMassGen. Six or soyearsin, theymovedtoTexaswhere theyownedalarge numberof hospitals. As Chief Legal CounselforHughesCommunicationduringthe launchof DirectTV I didsuchthingsas satellite launchagreementsandtransponderleasing. Alsoresponsibleforputtingtogetheramobile satellite consortiumof 25 companies. One of those companies,Omninet, approachedme andIjoined themas General Counsel afteracouple of yearsat Hughes. While there Istrategizedandsettleda dispute withQualcommresultinginthemacquiring the companyandourproduct, Omnitrax. We securedtwoBoard seatsand Omnitrax became Datatrax,the core of Qualcomm’searlybusiness. As a Vice PresidentatSecurityPacificBankIwas responsible fortheirautomationcompanyandall intellectual propertymattersinternationally. SPACpurchasedover$200MM a year intechnology, ran the creditcard andall bank operations,andhadthirdparty revenuesinexcessof $70MM, primarilyvia outsourcedservices tootherbanks. Aftersix yearsthere,theywerepurchasedbyBof A and movedto SF. I wasofferedapositioninSF,unlike everyotherlawyer,butitdidn’tworkout.
- 2. I sat onthe Board of The AmericanCorporate Counsel Association,all GC’sanddirectreports. The GC of FirstInterstate Bankofferedtoprovide me anoffice,asecretaryanda phone, andpay me by the hour. Nowrepresentingthe largestbankinLA I was offeredapositionasOf Counsel withBaker&Hostetler. My practice grewand I joinedHill WynnTroop&Meisinger. Asmypractice continuedtogrow I accepteda contract partnershipwithPerkinsCoie. Afteracouple of years,I lefttohelpestablishthe LA office of GreenbergTraurig,where Iwasan equityshareholderandachievedamilliondollarbook. Throughoutmypractice I continuedtorepresentlarge companies thatpurchasedsignificantamountsof technologyfortheiroperations,butwere nottechnologycompanies. Some of those clientsincluded NASSCO,The Irvine CompanyandLosAngelesCounty. IalsorepresentedNational CityProcessing nationwide,one of the nation’s largestcreditcardprocessingfirms. Myclientsincluded smaller companiesthatwere vendorsof technology. Significantcloseddealsinclude representingNintendotodeveloptheirnextgenerationgame chipand the purchase of millionsof chipsfromIBM. Counsel toRealtor.com, doingtheirdeal withthe NAR, whichwasone of the earlylandmarkdealsinthe internetspace. RepresentedLA Countyregardingthe developmentof software toruntheirfosterchildcare program. Highexposure deal thattookme in frontof the Board of Supervisors. Internetcounsel tothe OlsenTwinscompany,Dualstar. Afterthe dot com bustin2002 my practice was decimatedandIdecidednottorebuild,butretire. After several yearsandmovingtoSan Diego,Ihave recentlyjoinedanetworkinggroupcalledProVisorsand am nowback as an active memberof the bar, practicingonce again. I am marriedto Cynthiaandwe have two daughtersandthree grandchildren.