Chapman, Popik & White

William B. Chapman
Founding Partner/Senior Counsel

PRACTICE AREAS
Business Litigation, Civil Rights & Public Interest, Professional Liability, Intellectual Property Litigation

Bill Chapman is a founding partner of Chapman, Popik & White. He specializes in jury trials. Certain kinds of cases predominate in his practice, including business torts, civil rights, legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty matters undertaken for individual, corporate and public entity clients. About one third of Mr. Chapman's most recent trials and appeals have been in federal court, one third in Bay Area state courts, and one third in other jurisdictions.

Mr. Chapman is active in ADR, both as an advocate and as a neutral. He serves as a special master and court-appointed mediator in state and federal courts, and has undertaken some 30 private mediation assignments in recent years. He has also testified as an expert witness in legal malpractice trials.

Before beginning his law practice, Mr. Chapman was Business Vice President and Director of Planning for the University of Hawaii. Earlier, he was Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects (Philadelphia), where he co-authored textbooks in the "Our Man-Made Environment" series.

For some years, Mr. Chapman was an adjunct professor at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he taught Trial Advocacy and Evidence. He is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of ABOTA and a number of professional organizations. Mr. Chapman was one of five attorneys in private practice appointed by the Judicial Council to a committee charged with completely rewriting California's civil jury instructions (“CACI”), first published in 2003-2004.

Mr. Chapman graduated from Swarthmore College, and received his law degree from Stanford Law School.

Representative Cases
• Anderson v. Reno [Ashcroft]. Represented plaintiff female FBI agent in federal court action/appeal involving claims of gender-based employment discrimination and harassment. See 190 F.3d 930 (9th Cir. 1999).
• Barbour v. Honeywell. Represented defendant corporation in settlement during state court trial of suit alleging breach of “best efforts” provision in business-acquisition agreement.
• Bare v. Lake Shastina Community Services District. Represented plaintiff city manager in state court trial/appeal of claims that plaintiff's former employer violated federal law in its post-termination efforts to block his employment by others. See unpublished opinion by Calif. Ct. of Appeal (3d Dist., No. C051061, filed January 29, 2008).
• Broussard v. City of San Jose. Represented four black fire captains in two federal court trials of civil rights claims alleging race-based discrimination in City’s failure to promote them to battalion chief.
• Chapman. Represented The Bruce Chapman Company in protection of its copyright and service mark “The Answer Man”.
• Gizzarelli v. County of Santa Clara. Represented defendant county transportation agency in this and several related state court trials of claims by bus mechanics alleging employment discrimination and hostile work environment.
• Brosterhous v. State Bar of California. Represented defendant state professional organization in state court trial and settlement of large fee claims arising from class-based attack on mandatory dues check-off for disputed activities (underlying litigation by others).
• Rovai, et al. v. Garden City, Inc. Represented plaintiff managers/indemnitees in state court trial of business fraud/false promise claims and in collection of resulting judgments in bankruptcy court.
• Terhune, Inc. Represented Albert Payson Terhune Inc. in protection of literary and broadcasting rights to dog stories.
• Theophilos v. Coopers & Lybrand. Represented plaintiff CEO in state court action alleging breach of fiduciary duty during and after a corporation-CEO financial dispute. Settled during trial.
• Twin Books v. Zorro Productions. Represented plaintiff book publisher in federal court litigation and settlement of intellectual property claims.
• Certain Underwriters at Lloyds v. [XYZ Attorneys]. Represented defendant law firm in state court trial and post-trial settlement of an insuring syndicate’s claims of negligence in supervising the defense of a substantial civil action.
• Walsh v. Bronson, Kashian, et al. Represented defendant attorneys (and, after summary judgment, their client) in state court trial/appeal of plaintiff newspaper reporters’ claims that an underlying libel action was maliciously prosecuted. See 200 Cal. App. 3d 259 (1988).

CONTACT
phone: (415) 352-3000
direct: (415) 277-9002
fax: (415) 352-3030
chapman@chapop.com