Julie Ann Shepard 

From the high-stakes world of advanced media and internet law to the intricacies of content licensing, Julie Shepard has built a reputation for her ability to adapt and innovate in the face of complex litigation challenges.

She represents a diverse array of clients, and in several recent cases, she’s found herself uncovering new layers of intrigue and deceit that would rival the plot of a bestselling novel.

It was a case that could have been ripped from the pages of a Hollywood script. In 2022, Shepard secured a jaw-dropping $51.6 million federal judgment for Columbia Pictures in a copyright infringement case against pirates. The case, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. et al. v. Alejandro Galindo et al., involved the main defendant, Alejandro Galindo, who had concealed his identity while operating the pirate website Nitro IPTV.

“There are some cases I have been a part of that have a commonality in themes. There are these bad actors doing bad things that could almost be novels in the sense that both sets of defendants had weaved complicated webs of deceit that we had to unravel and then present to the court,” Shepard shared, reflecting on her experience with the cases.

With tenacity and an unwavering pursuit of justice, Shepard and her team uncovered Galindo’s and his co-conspirators’ true identities, leading to a landmark decision by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong.

The judge found the Nitro TV defendants were “willfully engaged in egregious copyright infringement” and that Nitro TV’s “very existence” compromised the studios’ “business model, as well as the entertainment industry itself.”

This case was particularly significant, as the District Court awarded the maximum award of $150,000 per work infringed. Shepard and her team had already secured an early win by obtaining a preliminary injunction in 2020 that blocked Nitro TV from continuing to pirate content and transferring domain names to avoid enforcement.

In another high-profile case, Shepard and her team scored a $52.5 million judgment for e-commerce giant Rakuten Group, Inc. in a dispute over an investment in a film franchise and other entertainment projects. The case, Rakuten, Inc. v. The H Collective, Inc., saw Rakuten taking on two brothers and their production companies in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

With allegations of misrepresentation of rights to the film franchise, Shepard and her team were able to secure a ruling that granted Rakuten full recovery of its $23 million investment, $25 million in punitive damages, and $1 million in attorney’s fees, along with prejudgment interest.

Julie Shepard’s ability to adapt and innovate in an ever-changing legal landscape sets her apart from the competition, and her impressive track record in tackling complex litigation and pre-litigation matters demonstrates that she is truly a force to be reckoned with.

— Douglas Saunders