Rollin A. Ransom

ROLLIN RANSOM serves as co-leader of Sidley’s global Commercial Litigation and Disputes practice. He is managing partner of the Los Angeles office and also head of the Greater Los Angeles Litigation group. Representing both individuals and corporations, Rollin has extensive experience prosecuting and defending lawsuits involving a wide variety of intellectual property claims, including copyright and theft of idea, trademark, false advertising, trade secret and unfair competition actions. Rollin’s clients cover an array of industries, including media and entertainment, technology and financial services companies. He also regularly counsels clients outside of litigation on a variety of intellectual property, advertising and internet-related matters.

Representative matters include:

• Representation of major record labels and a leading independent label in litigation respecting copyright interests in pre-1972 sound recordings. The settlement, which was announced in June 2015, was ranked as the #1 settlement in the nation in The National Law Journal’s Top 100 Verdicts and Settlements of 2015.
• Representation of a leading manufacturer of particle characterization instruments and its employee against copyright, trade secret misappropriation and false advertising claims brought by a competitor. After the court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on all of plaintiff’s copyright claims and the bulk of the trade secret claim, and granted defendants’ motions in limine as to the remaining claims, the plaintiff stipulated to entry of judgment in favor of defendants. The judgment, including the district court’s award of fees and expenses in favor of Rollin’s client, was affirmed on appeal.
• Lead counsel prosecuting a breach of contract claim on behalf of a film production company arising from the failure of the defendant, another film production company, to develop a project in which the plaintiff had invested. After the parties settled the claim and the defendant breached its repayment obligation, plaintiff successfully reinstituted the lawsuit and obtained immediate entry of judgment and an award of attorneys’ fees.

Rollin has been recognized in Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in Intellectual Property: Trademark, Copyright & Trade Secrets, and has been listed in Who’s Who Legal: Telecommunications, Media & Technology each year since 2017. Rollin earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served as an associate editor of the Law Review. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University, where he received a B.A. in history.