CHAD HUMMEL is a partner based in Sidley’s Century City office and a member of the Commercial Litigation and Disputes, Antitrust, and White Collar practices. He is also a co-leader of the firm’s national trial practice. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been listed each year since 2006 in The Best Lawyers in America (2006–2022). He is ranked in the 2021-2022 editions of Chambers USA in Litigation: General Commercial – California, and described as a “highly respected litigator who receives particular plaudits for his courtroom prowess” with clients stating “he’s focused on obtaining long-term goals, while at the same time developing and implementing a short-term strategy that was efficient and effective. He’s a vigorous advocate and a strategic thinker” (2021). Chad is also recognized as a “Litigation Star” for Commercial, Competition/Antitrust, and White Collar Crime by Benchmark Litigation (2020–2023), and he was profiled in the Los Angeles Business Journal as a “Leader of Influence: Litigators & Trial Lawyers” (2020–2022).
Throughout his three decades in private practice, Chad has litigated and tried some of the nation’s highest profile civil and criminal cases in federal and state courts throughout the country, successfully defending mission critical and “bet-the-company” matters and achieving multiple eight-figure verdicts and judgments on behalf of plaintiffs he has represented. His verdicts have been listed among the top defense and plaintiff-side matters in California.
Chad has successfully tried civil and criminal cases in the entertainment, media, hospitality, sports, technology, healthcare, financial services, mortgage banking, real estate, airline, video game, and telecommunications industries. For such prominent companies as IMAX, DIRECTV, AT&T, Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Steve Madden, Ticketmaster, IAC, Aetna, Guaranteed Rate, Fashion Nova, Cardinal Financial, Accor Hotels, Hewlett-Packard, American Airlines, Tenet Healthcare, Avis, and Intuit, he has successfully litigated complex commercial cases and class actions antitrust, intellectual property (including patent infringement, idea theft, trade secrets, First Amendment, and right of publicity), consumer protection defense, false advertising and unfair competition, breach of fiduciary duty, profit participation, data theft, RICO, and constitutional issues.
In addition to his formal litigation and trial practice, Chad has advised numerous public and private companies in connection with regulatory investigations and actions by governmental agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the CFPB, the SEC, and numerous states’ attorneys’ general.
Chad taught advanced pre-trial procedure and advocacy at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law teaching advanced pre-trial advocacy.