Associate

Pamela K. Graham is an associate in the firm's Commercial Litigation Practice Group.  She focuses her practice in civil litigation, with an emphasis on complex commercial matters. 

Pamela has litigated matters involving business tort disputes, subprime mortgage securities fraud, contract disputes and tax shelters.  She assists the Alliance for Children's Rights and Public Counsel on a pro bono basis, representing foster parents in the adoption finalization process.  She also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the business law department at California State University, Northridge.  Prior to joining Drinker, Pamela was an associate in Irell & Manella LLP's litigation workgroup.

Representative Matters:

• Served as trial counsel for a bankruptcy trustee suing a former director of the bankrupt company and that director's affiliated companies.  The trustee alleged that the former director breached his fiduciary duties to the company by selling an unfair and unreasonable tax shelter to his company.  The trustee sought to void the tax shelter and obtain repayment of all money paid for the tax shelter, plus prejudgment interest.  After a 10-day trial, the trustee prevailed on all claims.  The tax shelter transaction was voided, and the defendants were ordered to return all money paid in the transaction plus prejudgment interest for over a decade, totaling $27 million.
  
  
• Obtained summary judgement on behalf of Activision against copyright claims by eight rappers alleging that their performances wrongly appeared in Activision's "True Crime: Streets of L.A." video game.  Participated in Activision's appellate victory on the same claims.
  
  
• Participated in a six-week jury and bench trial on behalf of Viacom Outdoor concerning a joint venture to place outdoor advertising in the Los Angeles area.  The trial resulted in a multi-million dollar compensatory and punitive damages verdict for Viacom Outdoor, and the rejection of an $80 million contract, fraud, and fiduciary duty claims against Viacom Outdoor.
  
  
• Represented Novellus Systems, a manufacturer of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, in a patent infringement lawsuit filed against it by industry-leader Applied Materials.  Over a period of seven years, each of the patents Applied Materials had asserted against Novellus was declared invalid, held not to be infringed, or withdrawn from the case.  On the eve of the trial, the litigation resulted in settlement, which involved a payment from Applied Materials to Novellus Systems.

In General.  Pamela earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles in 2001, where she was the chief production editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review and recipient of various honors, including the First Honors Awards in Legal Research and Writing and Torts, the Loyola Scholar Award and the Dean's Academic Scholarship (1999-2001). She received her B.A. in journalism and mass communication and political science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1996.

Seminars and Speeches

 Adjunct Faculty, Business Law Department, California State University, Northridge, Fall 2009

"Parental Responsibility Laws: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime, " Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, June 2000