Craig Nicholas

Partner

Craig M. Nicholas is a founding partner in the law firm of Nicholas & Butler LLP.  Mr. Nicholas represents some of the largest companies in San Diego County and multi-national corporations in business litigation matters.  He also focuses on consumer, employment and shareholder class actions.  In 2009, The San Diego Daily Transcript identified Mr. Nicholas as one of the top 25 corporate litigators in San Diego County.  SuperLawyers magazine three times selected Mr. Nicholas as one of the top attorneys in San Diego (2008-2010).  Only five percent of the lawyers in California are named by SuperLawyers each year.  SuperLawyers named Mr. Nicholas to its selective Blue-Ribbon panel of attorneys to evaluate qualified candidates in San Diego County.  In April 2009, the Litigation Counsel of America Trial Lawyer Honor Society invited Mr. Nicholas to become a Fellow, an honor bestowed on less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers.   Mr. Nicholas has given seminars on expert witness law in California and civil litigation matters.

Mr. Nicholas is admitted to practice before all of the California state trial and appellate courts, the United States District Court for the Southern, Central, and Northern Districts of California; and the United States Supreme Court. 

Representative cases handled by Mr. Nicholas include:
 

1. Cohen v. Robert Bosch Tool where Mr. Nicholas and his partner successfully obtained a $5 million class action settlement for claims related to saws that were mislabeled as “Made in the USA”;
2. FCC, LLC v. Mizuho Medy Co. Ltd., et al. where Mr. Nicholas defeated claims exceeding $6 million in against a Japanese multi-national corporation, Mizuho Medy Co. Ltd.  He successfully affirmed the dismissal after oral argument before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.  Mr. Nicholas also helped secure a six-figure award of attorneys’ fees for his client, helping to recover significant defense costs. 
3. Maxwell v. Toys R Us where Mr. Nicholas certified a class of millions of California Toys R Us and Babies R Us customers under causes of action for Unfair Competition, violation of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and other claims related to Toys R Us’ gift card program.
4. Upper Deck v. Fry’s Electronics where Mr. Nicholas pursued over 90 counterfeiters of Upper Deck products in litigation across the United States, successfully preserving the company’s intellectual property rights.
5. Markoff v. Richard McWilliam, where Mr. Nicholas and his partner prevailed after a three-week trial in San Diego Superior Court against a plaintiff alleging wrongful termination claims.
6. Tucker v. Brooks where Mr. Nicholas prevailed after a week-long trial in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of a broker sued for claims of negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.
7. Wark v. Turk where Mr. Nicholas won a multi-day arbitration in Los Angeles defending a seller of property accused of fraud and misrepresentation. The arbitration victory occurred after four years of litigation and his client recovered attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in the dispute.
8. Eivazi v. Upper Deck where Mr. Nicholas won an employment trial brought by an employee asserting wage/hour and discrimination claims.

            Mr. Nicholas is a leader in the San Diego litigation community.  He has served on the Executive Board of Directors of the William Enright Chapter of the American Inns of Court.  Mr. Nicholas was an Associate with the Louis Welsh Chapter of the American Inns of Court in 2001.  Mr. Nicholas is a former President and a member of the Board of Directors of the State Bar of California Young Lawyers Division.

           Mr. Nicholas received his Juris Doctor in 1995 with cum laude honors from the University of Arizona College of Law, where he served as Note & Comment Editor of the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of California at San Diego, where he graduated cum laude with a BA in political science in 1992.  Mr. Nicholas was a partner at the antitrust and business litigation law firm of Wright & L’Estrange from 2002-2004, recognized by San Diego Magazine as one of the leading antitrust law firms in San Diego, before founding Nicholas & Butler LLP to offer client services on a larger platform.