Daniel M. Petrocelli

President Donald J. Trump and prize fighter Manny Pacquiao share one thing in common: attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli.

The high-profile O’Melveny litigator has been making headlines since he successfully obtained a wrongful death verdict against football legend O.J. Simpson in 1997.

Twenty years later, Petrocelli shows no signs of slowing down.

During the height of an intensely fought presidential campaign, Petrocelli was able to convince a federal judge to refrain from scheduling the trial in a case alleging that then candidate Trump’s eponymous university defrauded students until after the election. He settled the case on the eve of trial.

“We were able to get everything resolved,” he said of the several lawsuits his client was facing. “That was the best result for the country at large, to not have to endure a lengthy set of trials against a sitting president.”

Petrocelli notes that the cases were settled with no admission of fault. Low v. Trump University, 3:10-cv-00940 (S.D. Cal., filed Apr. 30, 2010).

He’s hot off another victory that involves a fight of a different kind: boxing.

In the end of August, Petrocelli helped convince U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that his client, Many Pacquiao, had concealed the fact that he had suffered a serious injury before one of the most anticipated fights in boxing history, which pit Pacquiao against the legendary Floyd Mayweather. In Re: Pacquiao-Mayweather Boxing Match Pay-Per-View Litigation, 2:15-ml-02639-RGK-PLA (C.D. Cal., filed Aug. 17, 2015).

“We think that ruling is very important because it affirms a very important principle: people who are disappointed in the outcome of a live performance are not entitled to get their money back because they don’t like the outcome.”

— Nicolas Sonnenburg