Emil Petrossian

Emil Petrossian, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP, litigates difficult, high-stakes disputes. A recent example was his work as co-lead counsel representing the City of San Jose and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration in the effort to prevent the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census form.

"We filed under the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution's enumeration clause," Petrossian said. His complaint, filed in federal court, argued that including the question would "impede the [U.S. Census] Bureau from achieving its objective of making an 'actual Enumeration' of the U.S. population" as the Constitution requires. That will result "in an increased undercount of minority populations" by reducing the number of non-citizens and their citizen relatives or household members who respond. City of San Jose v. Ross, 3:18-cv-02279 (N.D. Cal., filed April 17, 2018).

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of San Francisco agreed, finding that Commerce Secretary Wilber Ross' "cynical search to find some reason, any reason...to justify that preordained result" was "arbitrary and capricious, represented an abuse of discretion and was otherwise not in accordance with law."

That decision was ultimately validated after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration under the Administrative Procedure Act in a parallel proceeding arising out of New York. Eventually, the Trump Administration gave up on adding a citizenship question to the census.

"Trump's pronouncement that he would not pursue the citizenship question put an end to it," Petrossian said. "But it does come off as a win. We knew Secretary Ross offered pretextual reasons for ulterior motives, but we could not foresee how things would unfold. This case was one of the highlights of my career so far."

Petrossian serves as lead counsel in an unusual copyright action in the Central District on behalf of client Timbuktu Labs Inc., the publisher of the bestselling children book series, "Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls." The defendant is co-founder Francesca Cavallo, Timbuktu's former chief creative officer. The suit seeks a judicial declaration that Cavallo does not own any copyrights to the works because she was an employee of Timbuktu when she co-wrote them as works-for-hire under the Copyright Act.

"A fascinating case," Petrossian said. "These amazing books show famous and important women through history. They open young girls' eyes to the possibilities before them." Timbuktu Labs Inc. v. Cavallo, 2:19-cv-04841 (C.D. Cal., filed June 3, 2019).

"But this isn't an ordinary business dispute," he said. "The copyright issues are fairly straightforward, but there is a parallel case dissolving Cavallo's domestic partnership relationship with Timbuktu's co-founder, Elena Favilli."

That calls for some careful lawyering, Petrossian said. Also in the mix are visa issues regarding Cavallo, who was born in Italy and whose immigrant petition for alien workers was sponsored and paid for by Timbuktu. "There's a great deal of emotion involved that requires thoughtful and sensitive attention," Petrossian said.

The case is in the early discovery stage. Cavallo's answer to the complaint is due in August. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge George H. Wu of Los Angeles.

-- John Roemer