Mr. Haviland has prosecuted a number of high profile cases, including Southern Christian Leadership Conference v. City of Los Angeles (right of the Police Commission to suspend Chief of Police following the Rodney King beating); Garry Shandling v. Brad Grey (breach of fiduciary duty); TVT Records v. The Island Def Jam Music Group (copyright infringement, fraud, and breach of contract); and Lockheed v. Crane (cost recovery in Superfund cleanup).
Other representative actions include the defense of Sempra Energy in Chan et al. v. City of Pomona, et al. (multi-party defense involving claims of City of Pomona employees for toxic tort injuries); UCANN v. Albertsons, et al. (defense of Albertsons in multiple actions alleging violation of privacy rights under federal and state laws governing medical information); Sybersound v. UAV et al. (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) and unfair competition claims arising from alleged criminal copyright infringement); In re Death Row Records (representation of Trustee in reorganization of record label); and In re Tricom (representation of Liquidator of Bancredito Panama in Dominican telecommunications company reorganization).
Mr. Haviland serves on the boards of directors of a number of professional and service organizations, including the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association, and has been named by Black Enterprise Magazine as “One of America’s Top Black Lawyers.” Mr. Haviland received his B.A. from Harvard College and his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was Associate Editor of the Stanford Law Review and a foreign language area studies fellow, focusing on Portuguese and Brazilian law. He is a former clerk to the Honorable Warren Ferguson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He is a member of the California Bar.