Biography

Mr. Joseph R. Wilbert is an experienced attorney who has successfully represented individuals, small and mid-sized businesses, and major corporations in numerous lawsuits and transactions. His practice focuses on technology, media/entertainment, and insurance law.  Joe routinely obtains excellent results as lead counsel for clients.

Joe has devoted a significant part of his career to ethics.  He served on the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics in law school, then as the Secretary of the Orange County Bar Association Professionalism and Ethics Committee.  Further, as counsel for clients, he has obtained multiple victories regarding ethics-related issues.

Joe is also an artificial intelligence software developer, focusing on deep learning and natural language processing, and he has written on the intersection of law and artificial intelligence at lawandai.com.

Transactional Experience:

• Negotiated development of software-as-a-service artificial intelligence products relating to automated compliance with web accessibility guidelines
• Drafted corporate policies and led efforts to comply with data privacy legislation, including California Consumer Privacy Act, California’s data broker registration law, and other data privacy laws in California and nationwide
• Represented innovative online insurance marketing company regarding numerous transactions and corporate compliance issues
• Routinely drafted and negotiated intellectual property licensing agreements, non-disclosure agreements, collaboration agreements, and other contracts governing business arrangements
• Drafted foundational corporate documents for a home automation company and counseled the company on strategies for intellectual property protection
• Assisted businesses in analyzing the scope of intellectual property rights, and assisted clients with legal strategies for building brands and protecting their IP, as well as obtaining IP clearances from others where necessary
• Negotiated sponsorship agreements for professional athletes with major brands

Litigation Results:

• Won summary judgment that an insurer had breached its insurance contract by refusing to defend the client in another federal court case alleging claims of intellectual property infringement. West Trend, Inc. v. AMCO Ins. Co., 2015 WL 263934 (C.D. Cal. 2015)
• Won summary judgment for food supplier, defeating allegations of multimillion-dollar claims, including interference, defamation, breach of contract, and antitrust violations
• Obtained successful settlement for plaintiff food company whose trade secrets were misappropriated; won disqualification of opposing counsel, Blueberry Hill Restaurants, Inc. v. Superior Court, 2014 WL 1378239 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 8, 2014))
• Routinely convinced insurance companies to comply with their duty to defend companies and individuals despite the insurer’s initial denial of coverage, both through litigation and pre-litigation negotiation
• Successfully defended numerous intellectual property and unfair competition cases, including: defense of volleyball uniform company against large corporation’s trademark infringement allegations; defense of screen printing company against trade dress infringement and unfair competition claims brought by a larger company; defense of auto parts manufacturer against trademark infringement allegations; defense of small company against fraud allegations; and defense of grocery store chain against allegations of fraudulent labeling of products
• Defended multiple consumer and employment class actions, including obtaining dismissal of federal class action alleging unfair competition, and defeating class certification in six consolidated class actions alleging employment violations
• Helped industrial technology company recover environmental remediation costs under an insurance policy that covered the early 1970s, in hotly-contested federal litigation
• Part of the team that obtained dismissal of over 200 felony and 100 misdemeanor charges, in an indictment based on client’s alleged involvement in “robosigning” mortgage documents; Joseph’s factual investigation uncovered that the prosecutor failed to disclose a personal conflict of interest, which led to the dismissal

Clerkship:

• 2009-2010, Honorable Andrew J. Guilford, United States District Court for the Central District of California