Source: https://www.keker.com/Lawyers/Agnolucci-Simona
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 06:47:08+00:00

Document:
Simona Agnolucci specializes in high-stakes complex litigation, including class actions, white collar criminal defense and commercial disputes. Her clients include “sharing economy” technology companies, medical device manufacturers, brokerage companies, investment advisors, smartphone manufacturers, and leading law firms. Ms. Agnolucci has tried cases in state, federal and administrative court, including several as first chair.
Ms. Agnolucci represents clients in complex investigations brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. She also conducts internal investigations for corporate clients and Special Committees. She has defended corporate and individual clients from allegations of economic espionage, trade-secret theft, tax evasion, accounting and revenue recognition fraud, insider trading, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Ms. Agnolucci has an active pro bono practice, in which she primarily represents women fleeing gender-based persecution. Her groundbreaking pro bono work has been recognized by national media, including the New York Times.
Ms. Agnolucci speaks Italian, French and Spanish.
Downey v. Public Storage and Perez v. Public Storage: Ms. Agnolucci is lead counsel in two class actions filed in California against the United States’ largest self-storage operator, Public Storage, alleging violations of Business & Professions Code Section 17200 and the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. Both matters are pending in Los Angeles Superior Court. In May 2018, we defeated class certification in the Downey case. We then successfully moved to exclude testimony from all of the plaintiffs’ experts in the Perez case. Ms. Agnolucci first-chaired trial of the only claim remaining in the Perez case in January 2019. In February 2019, the Court issued a tentative decision in Public Storage’s favor on all claims.
Independent Contractors v. Lyft, Caviar, TaskRabbit: Ms. Agnolucci represents Lyft, Caviar and TaskRabbit in putative class actions addressing issues critical to the new economy: whether drivers, couriers and Taskers have been misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees.
United States v. Walter Liew: In a two-month federal jury trial, Ms. Agnolucci defended Silicon Valley engineer Walter Liew, who was indicted for attempted economic espionage and conspiracy to sell DuPont’s manufacturing trade secrets to the company’s Chinese competitors. The case was part of the government's effort to combat what it deemed as China's "persistent" industrial spying.
Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission v. Executive: Ms. Agnolucci successfully represented a high-ranking employee of a publicly-traded company in a complex Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation spanning several countries.
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Public Company: Ms. Agnolucci represented a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of a publicly-traded technology company in the investigation of alleged insider trading.
Edwards Lifesciences v. Corevalve Inc. et al.: We defended Medtronic, Inc. and its subsidiary, CoreValve, in a multi-patent case brought by Edwards Lifesciences in the District of Delaware. The patents at stake concerned CoreValve’s lifesaving transcatheter artificial heart valve. Although an injunction was initially ordered, we convinced the court to stay that injunction, and then later resolved all of the pending patent litigation with a successful settlement.
Apple, Inc. v. HTC Corp.: We defended smartphone manufacturer HTC Corp. from Apple’s assertion of six patents relating to user interface features. HTC originally was added to an action between Apple and Motorola that had been pending in the Southern District of Florida for almost two years. We successfully moved to sever Apple’s claims against HTC and HTC’s counterclaims from the litigation between Motorola and Apple, and to transfer the case to Delaware. HTC thereafter obtained a settlement to become the first Android handset maker licensed by Apple.
Hon. William C. Canby, Jr.
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Father Cuchulain Moriarty Award, 2011. The award honors lawyers who have made an extraordinary pro bono contribution to the Lawyers' Committee's Asylum Project.

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