Kenneth M. Fitzgerald is an experienced trial lawyer, practicing business litigation with an emphasis on complex commercial cases and intellectual property disputes. Before joining Chapin Fitzgerald Sullivan, Mr. Fitzgerald was a partner at Latham & Watkins, where he successfully tried numerous cases to verdict in state and federal courts throughout the country. Mr. Fitzgerald has handled a wide variety of commercial litigation matters involving contracts, business torts, trademarks, trade dress, copyrights, false advertising, unfair competition, insurance coverage, construction, defamation, fraudulent conveyance, antitrust, securities, white collar crime, employment, probate and ERISA issues.
In the intellectual property area, Mr. Fitzgerald has successfully prosecuted and defended copyright, trademark, trade dress, trade secret and false advertising/unfair competition actions for Akamai Technologies, BAR/BRI Bar Review Course, Bare Escentuals, Charlotte Russe, Disguise, the Famous San Diego Chicken, Gen-Probe, HBO, Minnesota Manufacturing & Mining (3M), Nissan, Rice University, ScubaPro, TaylorMade Golf, and other intellectual property owners. In other business litigation, he has represented the National Football League, AOL, Alphatec Spine, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, CIBC, Credit Suisse, DirecTV, Fluor, Hughes Network Systems, Gateway, Harcourt Learning Direct, Hilton, Hyatt, Hydranautics, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, Montrose Chemical, Neiman-Marcus, Nintendo, Oracle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Reebok, Reed Elsevier, Relational Investors, Safeway, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, Societe Generale, Sony Electronics, Teledyne, United Technologies, ViaSat and others. He has also served as a Special Assistant District Attorney, prosecuting multiple criminal jury trials.
Mr. Fitzgerald is currently listed in the 2011 Best Lawyers in America in the Commercial Litigation specialty. "Super Lawyers" ranks him in the "Top 10" attorneys in San Diego. He has been recognized on numerous occasions by the San Diego Daily Transcript as one of the "Top Attorneys" in San Diego for corporate and intellectual property litigation. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers San Diego Chapter, and on the San Diego Bar Association's Committee for Civility, Integrity & Professionalism.
Mr. Fitzgerald joined forces with veteran trial lawyer Ed Chapin and his partner Jill Sullivan in January, 2010 in order to practice in a trial-oriented litigation boutique setting. Prior to that time, Mr. Fitzgerald practiced at the global law firm of Latham & Watkins for nearly 20 years, becoming one of the firm’s most experienced trial lawyers. Prior to joining Latham & Watkins, Mr. Fitzgerald served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Howard B. Turrentine, United States District Judge for the Southern District of California. He has appeared on NBC's Today Show, Public Radio International's Marketplace program, and he has published articles or presented seminars on advanced intellectual property litigation, copyright and trade secret law, electronic discovery, false advertising and unfair competition law and other litigation topics.
Mr. Fitzgerald has served on the Board of Directors of STAR/PAL, the San Diego Police Athletic League Chapter providing recreational, educational and athletic opportunities to San Diego's underserved youth. He also serves on the Governing Council of the Shepherd Society, which supports the Shepherd School of Music at his alma mater Rice University, where he endowed a full tuition scholarship for trumpet performance majors. A former professional musician, Mr. Fitzgerald has performed with the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and the Festival Guadalquivir Orchestra in Tarija, Bolivia. He is currently the principal trumpet of the La Jolla Symphony Orchestra.
