Adam Burch is a litigation attorney at Rushing McCarl LLP, a Los Angeles-based business law firm representing plaintiffs and defendants at trial and on appeal. Immediately after joining the firm as an associate in 2024, Mr. Burch became an integral part of the trial team that won a multimillion-dollar jury verdict in Delis v. Thorn, a cannabis-industry partnership dispute.

Before working with Rushing McCarl, Mr. Burch was an extern for the Hon. Margo A. Rocconi for the Central District of California. Adam is a graduate of USC Gould School of Law. At USC, Mr. Burch participated in the IP & Tech Clinic, representing documentary filmmakers and other entertainment clients. Mr. Burch also participated in the Mediation Clinic, where he served as a professional mediator in small claims cases throughout Los Angeles and Orange County and EEOC employment disputes involving government agencies. Mr. Burch also contributed to USC Gould’s Entertainment Spotlight law journal, authoring an article that analyzed the WGA and SAG-AFTRA union strikes of 2023 through a legal lens. Before joining the firm as an associate attorney, Mr. Burch worked with Rushing McCarl for two years as a law clerk, where he provided critical support in litigation, transactional, and trademark matters involving clients in the entertainment industry and other fields.

Before starting his legal career, Mr. Burch worked as a professional actor, writer, and producer in the entertainment industry. He has appeared in films, television shows, and theater productions throughout California. He has also authored two science-fiction novels and was named a Nicholl Fellowship Quarterfinalist for his historical drama screenplay. Mr. Burch’s experience acting, writing, and producing podcasts helped him acquire elite communication and persuasion skills while building expertise in the entertainment industry. Mr. Burch also holds a black sash in Wing Chun Kung Fu and plays a mean guitar.

Licenses

California
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California

Education

J.D., University of Southern California Gould School of Law
B.A. with Honors, Communications/Media, University of California at San Diego

Notable Results (Firmwide)

Representing plaintiffs:

  • Won a $17.8 million jury verdict in a breach-of-contract case involving a major cosmetics manufacturer (Virgin Scent, Inc. v. BT Supplies West, Inc.).
  • Won a $9.9 million jury verdict in a partnership dispute involving the largest cannabis business in Kern County (Delis v. Thorn).*
  • Won a $3.3 million jury verdict in a dispute involving a breach of a medical practice sale contract and nonsolicitation agreement (Leyster v. Tran).
  • Won a California Labor Commissioner judgment exceeding $468,000 for an iHeartRadio DJ in a fraud case involving the Talent Agencies Act.
  • Won a default judgment exceeding $500,000 in a cryptocurrency fraud case; the case was covered in Forbes, leading to an FBI investigation and indictment (Chavez v. Jordan-Jones).
  • Won a Ninth Circuit reversal for a victim of an in-flight assault (Doe v. Compania Panamena de Aviacion).
  • Named co-lead plaintiffs’ counsel in putative deceptive-advertising class action based on a manufacturer’s failure to disclose its use of lead in Stanley Tumbler drinkware (In re Stanley Tumbler Litigation).
  • Won a favorable pretrial settlement of a malpractice and conversion case against an AmLaw 100 law firm (DSS Risk Consultants v. ArentFox).
  • Represented the family estate of musician Leonard Cohen in malpractice litigation against his former law firm (Seibert v. Ervin, Cohen & Jessup LLP).

Representing defendants:

  • Won a total victory (settlement with the plaintiff paying our client) for an employee who was sued by their former employer in a trade-secrets case (T2 Modus, LLC v. Williams).
  • Won a total victory (settlement paying the plaintiff nothing) for a shipping company that was sued by a bank for millions in a secured-transactions case.**
  • Won a jury verdict on four of five claims as trial counsel in a securities fraud case, defeating RICO allegations seeking eight-figure damages and leading to a post-trial settlement (Altaa v. Production Capital).
  • Favorably resolved trademark claims brought by Patagonia against Rushing McCarl clients within weeks of taking each case, resolving one matter for $0 and the other for a nominal sum ($1,860) (Patagonia v. Kranz).

Other:

  • Wrote an amicus brief signed by 1,700 University of Michigan alumni, garnering national news coverage  (Harbaugh v. Big Ten Conf).
  • Wrote an amicus brief for ClientEarth and The Shareholder Commons in securities-regulation case, with the Fifth Circuit citing the brief in its ruling (Nat’l Ctr. for Pub. Pol’y Res. v. SEC).
  • Wrote an amicus brief for 14 signatories in a case about state land-surveying regulations (Crownholm v. Moore).
  • Wrote a pioneering amicus brief on workplace caste discrimination, leading to invitations to present to the Department of Justice and other federal agencies (California DFEH v. Cisco Systems, Inc.).

* After damages for civil-theft are automatically trebled under Cal. Pen. Code § 496(c).

Affiliations

SAG-AFTRA
IATSE

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