Douglas J. Dixon

NEWPORT BEACH - Douglas J. Dixon is a founding partner of the litigation boutique Hueston Hennigan LLP who is focused on intellectual property law, white collar crime and general commercial disputes. He and colleagues formed the firm in 2015 after he'd worked at Irell & Manella LLP and at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

After getting his J.D. at Georgetown University Law Center, he clerked for the late Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie of Los Angeles.

Among Dixon's current ongoing matters is his representation of Southern California Edison as it faces civil claims arising from the 2017 Thomas Fire, the 2018 Montecito Mudslides and the 2018 Woolsey fire. In that role, he developed a novel resolution protocol that has led to the out-of-court resolution of more than 70% of the claims with the payment of billions of dollars to the victims.

"We're doing well, and we're growing at a deliberate pace," Dixon said in early January amid announcements that the firm -- which describes its litigators as "Disruptive Trial Lawyers" -- is opening a New York office and has elected a new managing partner, Moez M. Kaba. "There will be a party" for the opening, "and I'll be there. California and New York are two powerhouse legal markets, along with Delaware and the Eastern District of Texas, and our national practice needs an East Coast presence."

Dixon represents a leading online dating service, Match Group LLC, whose affiliates include Tinder, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish, in a bet-the-company suit against Google LLC, accusing the tech giant of illegally monopolizing and exploiting the markets for the distribution of mobile apps for Android devices. In re: Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, 3:21-md-02981 (N.D. Cal., filed Feb. 5, 2021).

In a deft move, he filed a petition for a temporary restraining order along with the complaint. Rather than fight the TRO, Google stipulated to the pre-trial relief Match Group sought, preserving the status quo and the apps' ability to operate in the Google Play Store without having to comply with Google's allegedly anticompetitive policies while the matter proceeds to trial in late summer or early fall 2023.

"Google is engaging in business practices in its Play Store that harm developers and users by tacking on a service fee and requiring developers to use Google's proprietary payment system so that Google gets a cut," Dixon said. His concern as trial approaches is the challenge of seating a jury. "Everybody uses Google multiple times a day, so it'll be impossible to find a juror who doesn't. We'll need fair and balanced jurors who can put that aside."

For Amazon.com Inc., Dixon obtained summary judgment of non-infringement in a patent matter asserted by MasterObjects Inc., a serial patent litigator. The plaintiff sought tens of millions of dollars over an autocomplete function in Amazon's search bar that allegedly infringed multiple MasterObjects patents. MasterObjects Inc. v. Amazon.com Ind., 1:20-cv 03478 (S.D. N.Y., filed May 4, 2020).

"Non-practicing entity might be the polite way of saying patent troll," Dixon noted. "They filed in the Southern District of New York, and their counsel scoffed when we petitioned to remove it to the Northern District of California, but we did. And the judge agreed with our simple position that we do not infringe."