Kathi Finnerty is an experienced business litigator with clients ranging from emerging technology companies to Fortune 300 retailers. Kathi provides litigation and compliance counseling, with emphasis on ADA defense and intellectual property protection. She has litigated matters involving copyrights, trademarks, covenants not to compete, trade secrets, and unfair competition. Kathi's ADA practice has included defense of over 300 accessibility cases, as well as compliance counseling on Fair Housing, ADA Titles II and III, and related state laws. She has negotiated hundreds of favorable settlements for wineries, retailers, restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, home builders, car dealers, and other operators of public accommodations, and defended public and private entities in litigation. Kathi is a recognized expert and frequent lecturer on litigation avoidance and legislative efforts to reform California accessibility laws. Kathi has practiced law for more than a decade, initially as in-house counsel to Sacramento Savings Bank where she represented the bank in lender liability, real property, construction and Uniform Commercial Code litigation. Kathi has extensive litigation and trial experience in state and federal courts, as well as arbitration and mediation. She has been successful resolving litigation short of trial and advising clients on how to avoid litigation in the future. Kathi is a founding member and past chair of Sac L.E.G.A.L., past director of the Lambda Community Center, an active member of the Sacramento County Bar Association and past President of the Sacramento County Bar Intellectual Property Section. Areas of Concentration · Commercial litigation and counseling - ADA defense of public and private entities - Intellectual property protection - Banking law - Internet law · Consumer class action defense · Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) · Fair Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) Significant Representations · Civil Rights - Represented 22 separate wineries on a unified basis against a known serial ADA litigator, maximizing settlement leverage for a very favorable settlement and mitigating litigation expenses for all defendants. - Successfully negotiated a nominal monetary settlement for a historic courthouse and related modern facilities. - Created and conducted retail ADA Compliance Surveys for a 500+ store national retail chain. - Represented national builder in developing an ADA/FHA Compliance Program for all future residential and commercial construction. - Successfully represented state agency in employment discrimination claims against high level governmental officials. · Commercial Litigation - Successfully defended national bank against claims of fraud and misrepresentations by an elderly customer, including a successful NASD investigation, through arbitration. · Intellectual Property - Represented inventor in defense of patent infringement claim by obtaining a favorable claim construction ruling from bench at Markman Hearing. Argued defense of the ruling in the Federal Circuit. - Successfully represented numerous clients in domain name disputes through the WIPO, and informal means. - Successfully defended a national software company at trial in claims of copyright violations over a 13 year period in over 30 states. Professional & Community Involvement · Member, Sacramento County Bar Association - Member, Council, Foundation, Nominating Committee 1996-2005 - Board Member and Past Chair, Intellectual Property Section · Member, Women Lawyers Society · Director and Vice-President, Lambda Community Center, 1994-1996 · Co-Chair, Sacramento L.E.G.A.L, 1996-2001 Awards & Recognition · Listed, Best Lawyers in America, 2009 - 2010 · Selected by Super Lawyers magazine and California Super Lawyers magazine, 2004, 2006-2008 Articles, Publications, & Lectures Speeches · Sponsored and presented with Grace Bergen, at the Association of Corporate Counsel; Sacramento Chapter's: "New Federal E-Discovery Rules: A Brave New World" event | 
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