Dale Kinsella is a nationally known trial lawyer specializing in the areas of entertainment and intellectual property litigation. During his career, Mr. Kinsella has successfully tried numerous cases in state and federal courts, and in private arbitrations and administrative proceedings, involving a wide array of disputes, from copyright and trademark infringement matters to antitrust and securities litigation. Mr. Kinsella is listed in The Best Lawyers in America.
Mr. Kinsella has represented large domestic and international corporations, major motion picture studios, record companies, law firms, and professional athletes and actors. Most recently, he successfully represented numerous individuals and companies in litigation against KPMG and other national accounting firms in connection with “tax shelter” abuses that have been the subject of Congressional investigations. Mr. Kinsella has recovered tens of millions of dollars for his clients in these matters.
Mr. Kinsella represented John Ratzenberger and George Wendt (“Norm” and “Cliff”) in the celebrated “Cheers” litigation against Host International, including appeals to the United States Supreme Court regarding federal copyright preemption of California’s right of publicity law. Mr. Kinsella has also represented numerous professional athletes in a wide variety of administrative and litigation matters, including obtaining one of the largest legal malpractice settlements in California for boxer Mike Tyson. Mr. Kinsella has represented theatrical and recording artists in a wide variety of disputes, including Sean Connery, Tim Daly, Richard Dreyfus, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, and James Woods, as well as numerous other artists, directors, writers and producers.
Mr. Kinsella has represented motion picture studios Dreamworks and Universal Studios, including the successful defense at trial of a multi-million dollar claim seeking rescission of the sale of a studio division. He has represented domestic and international companies in complex licensing disputes involving copyright and trademark rights. Mr. Kinsella has also presented numerous artists as well as studios in “net profit” litigation involving prime time network television series and major motion pictures.
Mr. Kinsella successfully represented one of Canada’s largest corporations in injunction proceedings brought by Northrop Corporation seeking to enjoin the worldwide sale of the most advanced fighter jet aircraft. He also represented various members of the board of directors of Lincoln Savings & Loan in multi-district federal and state litigation involving the largest S&L failure in United States history, successfully resolving all civil claims against them. He represented numerous individuals and corporations in federal RICO actions including the successful resolution of all claims against a renowned investigator in the infamous “jeans wars” between Jordache and Guess. He successfully prosecuted bad faith and unfair claims practices cases in federal and state court against many of the country’s ten largest insurance carriers for verdicts and settlements in excess of $50,000,000.
Mr. Kinsella has represented numerous law firms and individual partners of firms in complex law firm dissolution proceedings, legal malpractice, and malicious prosecution actions in both state and federal courts.
Mr. Kinsella is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara (B.A. 1970) and UCLA Law School (J.D. 1974, Editor in Chief, UCLA Law Review).