Douglas Applegate has worked in San Francisco as a civil trial and appellate lawyer for the last twenty one years. He has represented clients in all phases of civil litigation, and his practice has included jury
trials, arbitration proceedings and bench trials, together with appeals in both the state and federal courts. He acted as the primary appellate counsel in several leading cases, including North South Finance Corp. v. Al-Turki (2nd Cir. 1996), in which the New York federal appellate court established new standards for the extra-territorial reach of the federal racketeering laws, County of Contra Costa v. Pinole Point Properties, Inc. (Cal. App. 1994), in which the California appellate court established new rules governing the use of appraisals in eminent domain proceedings, Montgomery v. McMath (9th Cir. 2000), addressing the federal preemption doctrine under ERISA, and Zack’s, Inc. v. City of Sausalito (Cal. App. 2008), discussing the public trust doctrine and limitations on the public use of underwater streets.

Doug started his practice in San Francisco after graduating with honors from the University of Chicago Law School. He is presently the head of the firm’s appellate and complex litigation practice group. Representative clients range from publicly traded companies to privately held businesses and individual entrepreneurs, including MK Equities Group, Sequoia Real Estate Group, 3dfx Interactive, Inc., Prometheus Real Estate Group, Meridian Investment Management, Inc., Terranomics Development, Morgan Capital
Investments, Westcon Microtunneling, GoFish.com and Global Asset Capital.

Doug has been approved as litigation counsel by some of the world’s leading insurers for complex litigation, including Underwriters at Lloyds of London and AIG Group Services, Inc.

Published Articles:

Patenting Improvements: The Costs of Making Patents Easily Available, vol. 8, no. 2 Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal (August 1992), pp. 429-446.

Safety and Disability Rights: When Worlds Collide, program materials for the ABA Joint Litigation and Labor Seminar (April 1992).

Published Decisions

Zack’s, Inc. v. The City of Sausalito, 165 Cal.App.4th 1163 (Cal.App. 2008)
Bassidji v. Goe, 413 F.3d 928 (9th Cir. 2005)
BankAmerica Pension Plan v. McMath, 206 F.3d 821 (9th Cir. 2000)
Reliance Ins. Co. v. Superior Court, 84 Cal. App. 4th 383 (Cal. App. 2000)
North South Fin. Corp. v. Al-Turki, 100 F.3d 1046 (2d Cir. 1996)
County of Contra Costa v. Pinole Point Properties, 27 Cal. App. 4th 1105
(Cal. App. 1994)
Lopes v. Vieira 488 F.Supp.2d 1000 (E.D. Cal. 2007)
543 F.Supp.2d 1149 (E.D. Cal. 2008)

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