Christian Scali
Christian Scali has a diverse practice that includes advice and counsel and complex and high stakes litigation. His clients are in a variety of industries, including restaurant and hospitality, property management, entertainment, clothing manufacturing and ecommerce, but the majority of them are in the retail automotive industry. Mr. Scali is known throughout the state of California for his work on behalf of the retail automotive industry in a series of advertising lawsuits brought against it under California’s Unfair Competition Law resulting, among other things, in the disbarment of consumer advocates, Trevor Law Group, and for his work on the Defense Steering Committee in the massive automobile consumer leasing lawsuit against the entire California retail automotive leasing industry, In re Vehicle Lease Document Cases.
Valued by clients for his outside general counsel advice and guidance, Christian resolves the critical issues, disputes and lawsuits facing his clients to minimize risks.
He also regularly assists clients with their mergers and acquisitions. While he is always a fierce advocate for his clients, when he is engaged on a buy/sell, his focus is on making the deal. Years of litigating buy/sell and commercial lease disputes on behalf of his clients have made him an effective transactional attorney. His ability to recognize the difference between an important or consequential deal point and one that has no real practical advantage or disadvantage, avoids pointless disputes and allows the parties to more quickly get to a deal.
Finally, Mr. Scali also creates effective corporate compliance and ethics programs for his clients and represents clients in regulatory enforcement actions and requests for information.
Mr. Scali is on the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) Litigation Section Executive Committee. And he is a delegate for the Board of Directors of the Independent Auto Dealers Association of California (IADAC). He co-authored the chapter on confidentiality agreements and non-competes in PLI's 2015 Healthcare Law Handbook. Mr. Scali also authored the California New Car Dealer Association’s Advertising Law Manual in 2015 and 2017.
Mr. Scali has been appointed to the Steering Committee of XLNC—a global alliance of independent, professional services firms—and serves as co-chair of their legal focus group.
Representative matters
- Performed due diligence on compliance and legal operations of existing California-based target company for acquisition by Mexico-based company. Handled initial and ongoing legal compliance and legal operations for new California operations of Mexico-based company.
- Put together team of advisors for safety compliance, accounting, insurance and HR for Canadian company entering U.S. market through California. Handled initial and ongoing legal compliance and legal operations for new California operations
- Reviewed and compared Canadian privacy laws against California privacy laws (CPPA and CPRA) and adapted Canadian company's privacy program into a compliant California privacy program for new California business operations.
- Representing majority heirs of a U.S.-based legacy automotive portfolio in disputes with a minority shareholder, the firm is leveraging its franchise and M&A expertise to facilitate the $50M sale of the portfolio to a third-party buyer, resolving longstanding ownership and control issues.
- Represented a high-net-worth Belgian citizen regarding the U.S. tax implications of expatriation and the taxation of U.S. retirement and deferred compensation plans.
- Represented a Cyprus-based holding company of a family office in evaluating the status of its corporate beneficial owners for U.S. FATCA reporting and treaty purposes in connection with a U.S. investment account, including assessing whether the structure raises concerns regarding the use of Cyprus as a treaty jurisdiction.
- Litigated disputes concerning purported misappropriation of intellectual property.
- Advised companies concerning intellectual property licensing and disputes.
- Advised a casting company on operations issues.
- Advised businesses concerning domain name disputes.
- Advised businesses concerning DMCA take-down notices.
- Advised clients concerning entertainment industry union issues.