Shella Deen is Chair of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group, and for 20 years has advised and litigated on behalf of her clients through all phases of commercial litigation. Her practice focuses on complex business disputes involving intellectual property, trade secrets, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and unfair business practices. Ms. Deen’s clients, many of which are well known global high tech companies, appreciate her ability to quickly analyze a dispute and determine the most efficient and cost effective manner for resolution, be it through early dispute resolution or trial.

Prior to joining Hoge Fenton, Ms. Deen practiced with Terence St. J. Millett in London. She received her law degree, with honours, from the University of Buckingham and completed her Solicitors qualification exams at the College of Law, England. Because of her expertise in global business disputes and her fluency in several languages, Ms. Deen frequently is consulted by clients and attorneys in disputes involving international companies, parties, and transactions.

Recent Matters

• Obtained a highly favorable result for a Taiwanese publicly traded chip manufacturer in a lengthy, complex, multi-national, binding international commercial arbitration involving a $100+ million trade secret claim involving power amplifiers.

• Negotiated two very favorable settlements for a multi-billion dollar, publicly traded, US company (global leader in manufacture, integration and support of IP-based, end-to-end networking and telecommunications solutions) in multi-million dollar commission and contractual disputes.

• On behalf of a multi-billion dollar Taiwanese chip manufacturer, recovered nearly $2 million from a publicly traded U.S. company for breach of a joint development agreement (including resolution of issues of jointly owned intellectual property).

• Successfully negotiated a very favorable settlement of a case just prior to trial on behalf of a U.S. publicly traded electronics manufacturer in a multi-million dollar commercial litigation claim involving hard disk drives.

• Recovered $1 million in royalties for an overseas chip manufacturer.

• Successfully defended a publicly traded U.S. high tech company in two complex commercial litigation claims totaling more than $68 million. Both actions involved thwarting the plaintiffs’ attempts to obtain drastic prejudgment remedies which could have significantly damaged the client company.

• Negotiated an extremely favorable settlement for her insurance carrier client, successfully defending a $200 million claim against its policies after two phases of a complex, four-phase insurance coverage (environmental) litigation trial.

• Successfully resolved a 48-party complex construction defect case as lead counsel on behalf of her general contractor client. The case involved more than 100 units, had significant architectural and construction issues, and plaintiff’s original claim totaled more than $12 million.

Professional Activities

Ms. Deen is a member of the California State Bar, the Law Society of England and Wales, the Santa Clara County Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and has been a Board Member of the Santa Clara County Bar Association’s Real Property Section and Women Lawyers Committee.

Admissions

Ms. Deen is admitted to practice before all California Courts, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. She is admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.