Harry Mittleman is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of Irell & Manella LLP.  Mr. Mittleman is the firm’s Deputy General Counsel.  In each of the past four years, Mr. Mittleman has been selected for inclusion in Los Angeles Magazine's Southern California "Rising Stars" in business litigation.

Mr. Mittleman joined Irell & Manella in 1995 following a clerkship with the Honorable Alfred T. Goodwin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  He became a partner in the firm in January 2001.

A major focus of Mr. Mittleman's practice is defending law firms and lawyers against lawsuits alleging legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and conflicts of interest.  Mr. Mittleman also frequently counsels law firms on issues of professional liability, professional responsibility and law firm governance.  His clients include some of the world’s leading international law firms.

On behalf of other law firms and lawyers, Mr. Mittleman has obtained dismissals of complaints alleging legal malpractice.  He also obtained a published appellate affirmance of a judgment dismissing claims for alleged professional negligence against a leading international law firm.  The published decision held, as a matter of first impression under California law, that a legal malpractice lawsuit must be dismissed where the law firm could not effectively defend the suit without revealing privileged client confidences.

Mr. Mittleman has also represented a number of the nation's leading motion picture studios and television networks in copyright, trademark, right of publicity/privacy, unfair competition and contract disputes.  Mr. Mittleman was counsel to a major Hollywood motion picture studio in litigation over the right to produce and distribute James Bond movies.  Mr. Mittleman represented Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal City Studios in a multi-billion dollar dispute in the New York Supreme Court regarding the licensing and distribution of pay television services in Australia.  Mr. Mittleman was a member of the trial and appellate team that successfully obtained a defense verdict on behalf of Viacom Inc. and CBS before the Delaware Chancery Court and Delaware Supreme Court in an action concerning USA Cable's attempt to enjoin a strategic alliance between Viacom and the WWF.

Mr. Mittleman also has substantial experience in the area of complex class action litigation, including the defense of securities fraud class actions, SEC proceedings, antitrust class actions, and employment law class actions.  He was counsel to one of Hollywood's largest motion picture studios in the defense of an industry-wide class action alleging that the studios conspired to impose unconscionable "net profits" restrictions in motion picture talent contracts.  On behalf of the National Broadcasting Company and NBC Studios, in litigations filed both in the Federal and California State Courts, Mr. Mittleman was a member of the team that successfully obtained dismissals of complaints alleging class action and representative action claims that the television industry unlawfully discriminated against writers of television programming on the basis of age.  In New Jersey Federal Court, Mr. Mittleman successfully defended a former officer of a publicly traded company in a securities class action lawsuit alleging securities fraud and insider trading.  Mr. Mittleman recently represented Broadcom Corporation and certain of its officers and directors in a shareholder class action and a parallel derivative action alleging misstatements and omissions concerning Broadcom’s revenue and its assumption of warrant obligations in connection with acquisitions of five start-up companies.

Mr. Mittleman is the former chair of the firm’s Hiring Committee.  He has also served on the firm's Executive Committee.

Bar & Court Admissions

• 1994, California
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Central District of California