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Michael J. Higgins

Principal

  • Telephone: (510) 835-9100
  • Facsimile: (510) 451-2170
  • Email: mhiggins [at] wulfslaw [dot] com

Biography

Michael J. Higgins, a principal with the Firm, has practiced commercial litigation since 1991. His experience ranges across many areas of the law and includes both prosecution and defense of complex claims for breach of contract, unfair competition, securities fraud, antitrust, intellectual property infringement, and breach of fiduciary duty and other business torts. Mr. Higgins handles trials and appeals in both state and federal court; he also successfully resolves disputes through arbitration and mediation.

Mr. Higgins joined Wulfsberg Reese Colvig & Firstman in 2004; he continues to work on complex commercial litigation matters.
In both 2005 and 2006, Mr. Higgins was named a Northern California Super Lawyer, a peer-voted award published in San Francisco Magazine.

Education

  • B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz, 1973
  • J.D., University of California, Davis, 1990
  • Senior Articles Editor, U.C. Davis Law Review, 1989-1990

Affiliations

  • American Bar Association
  • Alameda County Bar Association
  • Admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the Northern, Central and Eastern Districts of California.

Professional Experience

After law school, Mr. Higgins worked as a law clerk for Justice Edmond W. Burke of the Alaska Supreme Court. Thereafter, he practiced commercial litigation with law firms in San Francisco, becoming a partner in one firm in 1998.

Commercial disputes he recently has handled include:

  • Ultra-hazardous industrial facility
    On behalf of the owner of a large transfer terminal for ultra-hazardous material, Mr. Higgins successfully prosecuted an action for professional negligence and defective construction against the designer/builder of the facility.  After close of fact discovery, the defendant settled with the firm's client, agreeing to pay one and one-half times as much to the client as the client originally paid for the design and construction of the facility.
  • Telecommunications company.
    On behalf of this client, Mr. Higgins brought suit in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, against former employees for breach of nondisclosure agreements, breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy. He successfully settled the case after defeating motions to dismiss and after taking early discovery.
  • Software-hardware systems developer.
    In a dispute with a former joint venturer over ownership rights to intellectual property and business opportunities, Mr. Higgins negotiated a settlement with considerable benefit to this client.
  • Individual corporate officers and majority shareholders.
    Mr. Higgins successfully represented these individuals in San Francisco County Superior Court litigation involving claims for breach of contract, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. One case settled at mediation on the eve of trial after Mr. Higgins won important summary judgment rulings. Mr. Higgins successfully litigated a later, related case, which also settled at mediation.
  • Telecommunications company.
    In the United States District Court, Northern District of California, Mr. Higgins successfully defended this client against claims of copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation and other related torts. The plaintiff, after aggressively moving for a preliminary injunction and expedited discovery, retreated as Mr. Higgins’s client took its own discovery and won key rulings from the court. No injunction issued and the case finally settled on terms favorable for this client.
  • Closely held corporations.
    In two related Alameda County Superior Court actions, after comprehensive discovery, Mr. Higgins enforced sizable promissory notes against the corporate defendant, winning both cases on summary judgment.

Speaking Engagements and Publications

Author

  • A Pitch for Right of Publicity, IP Magazine (Dec. 1998)
  • The Licensing of Athletes’ Trademark and Publicity Rights, Univ. of Texas Sports Law Institute conference (Oct. 1998)
  • California Wrongful Discharge Law and the Public Employee, 23 U.C. Davis L.R. 117 (1990)

Co-author

  • Fair Use: In the Courts and Out of Control? in materials for PLI Advanced Seminar on Copyright Law (1995)
  • The Interface Between Antitrust Principles and Those of Intellectual Property Law, chapter in Antitrust Counseling & Litigation Techniques (Von Kalinowski ed. 1994)
  • Antitrust Liability for Bad-Faith Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, in materials for PLI IP/Antitrust Seminar (1994)
  • Innovation and Antitrust, in materials for PLI IP/Antitrust Seminar (1993)
  • Department of Justice Views on Intellectual Property/Antitrust, in materials for PLI IP/Antitrust Seminar (1992)