Barbara Reeves
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker
Specialty: Business litigation
Law Firm: Harvard, 1973
When Barbara Reeves’ grandfather emigrated from Germany to the United States at the start of this century, he learned everything he could about the American constitution. “He was so impressed by it all,” recalls Reeves.
So impressed that when she was a child in Buffalo, N.Y., Reeves’ grandfather gave her a pair of bookends inscribed, “Equal Justice Under Law.” “For some reason,” Reeves says, “that really stuck with me” enough so that she decided to pursue a career in law when she grew up.
With 25 years of litigation experience, Reeves is an expert in disputes with an emphasis on antitrust, intellectual property, class actions, RICO and white-collar crime. Among her clients are Mobil, GE Credit, Bank of America, Sony Corp., Circuit City and the Church of Scientology.
In 1997, she represented six major oil companies in a patent-infringement case on clean-burning gasoline brought by Unocal Corp. Although the jury sided with Unocal and awarded $68 million in damages, the case is still under appeal. Currently, she represents Scientific Atlantic on an antitrust and patent case against Gemstar involving electronic program guide services.
She advocates integrating non-litigation techniques into the practice of law and has been able to resolve many cases favorably at an early stage through arbitration, mediation and other alternative resolution techniques.
After graduating cum laude from the Harvard School of Law, she clerked for Judge Alfred T. Goodwin of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Her practice began at the Department of Justice, where she worked in the special trials section, handling civil and criminal cases and was a special assistant to the assistant attorney general. In 1978, she was named chief of the antitrust division’s Los Angeles office.
Reeves is a co-founder of the Alliance for Children’s Rights, a non-profit organization that helps defend children in the foster care system.
Margot Carmichael Lester
