Philip E. Cook, Esq. joins JAMS with an extensive and accomplished background as a dispute resolution professional. Mr. Cook founded Cook Mediation in 2015, devoting an increasing portion of his time as a trial lawyer to mediating litigated disputes. Before that, beginning in 2004, he was a court-appointed settlement officer for the California Court of Appeal and, since 2006, was a court-appointed early neutral evaluator and mediator for the Los Angeles County Superior Court. In 2015, Mr. Cook became a court-approved mediator for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Mr. Cook draws upon decades of experience as a multistate trial lawyer to help parties resolve their disputes. He has tried cases before judges, juries, arbitrators and arbitration panels, and has argued appeals in both federal and state courts. His success in the courtroom runs the gamut of commercial litigation, including individual and class action cases involving contract disputes; corporate governance and securities and financial products claims; Business and Professions Code section 17200 claims and business torts; real estate, land use and environmental issues; product liability and toxic torts; antitrust, unfair competition and trade regulation; patent, trademark and copyright infringement; trade secrets; governmental claims and liabilities; freedom of speech and religious protection under the First Amendment; health care; construction defect; and wrongful termination, employment discrimination and executive compensation.

Before law school, Mr. Cook spent 12 years in the computer and consumer electronics fields, with business experience ranging from marketing and management positions with national Fortune 500 companies to his own entrepreneurial ventures.

Mr. Cook has litigated and mediated hundreds of matters spanning a wide range of disputes, including some not listed here, and invites you to discuss with him any case you believe might be suitable for mediation. The following representative matters reflect his experience as counsel.

Representative Matters

• Business Commercial
• Lead trial counsel in a corporate governance and breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit, under Delaware law, arising from the misappropriation of a commodities trading business
• Lead trial counsel for intervenor (acquirer) in class action lawsuits seeking to enjoin a multibillion-dollar merger; resolved with proxy revisions, and a subsequent shareholder vote approved the merger
• Lead trial counsel defending against a claim seeking “anti-dilution fee” pursuant to a stock warrant; resolved by direct negotiations pre-litigation
• Represented a minority shareholder exercising shareholder inspection rights under California law, alleging breach of fiduciary duties and theft of corporate opportunities against directors and majority shareholders
• Class Action & Mass Tort

• Lead counsel defending class action for oil and gas royalties allegedly underpaid for exploration and production at Wilmington (California) oil field
• Represented named plaintiff in class action against health care system arising from data breach
• Employment Law

• Represented governmental employer defending against “permatemp” claims brought by employees of governmental contractors seeking the benefits of civil service employees; summary judgment affirmed on appeal
• Health Care

• Lead trial counsel seeking $100 million in unpaid reimbursement by 20 California hospitals that had provided medical treatment to health plan members, while concurrently defending cross-claims
• Insurance

• Lead trial counsel in coverage action against first-party primary insurer under boiler and machinery endorsement, obtaining a $44.4 million jury verdict and a post-trial award of $7.3 million in prejudgment interest
• Lead trial counsel in coverage and bad faith action against primary liability insurer for failure to defend, obtaining a $12.7 million jury verdict, including $10 million in punitive damages
• Lead trial counsel in coverage and bad faith action against primary insurer under employment practices liability policy for failure to defend disability discrimination lawsuit
• Lead trial and appellate counsel for policyholder in coverage action against primary and excess insurers for asbestos exposure claims, including number of occurrences, “anti-stacking” of policy limits and “horizontal exhaustion,” and a series of phased trials resolving deductible and allocation issues; included multiple proceedings in the California Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, as well as North Carolina bankruptcy proceedings
• Lead trial counsel in coverage action for public utility’s environmental liabilities at over 30 former manufactured gas plant sites, including fortuity, trigger, “occurrence” or “accident,” and “owned property”/pollution exclusions
• Lead counsel for directors and officers policyholder responding to CFTC and multiple state regulator investigations and lawsuits over company’s business and advertising methods, including “professional services” and “goods or products” exclusions, recoverable loss under California and New York law, and related claims issues, including representation in Delaware bankruptcy proceedings
• Lead trial counsel for produce processor in coverage action for bodily injury, property damage and business interruption claims arising from an E. coli outbreak at fast-food chain locations
• Intellectual Property

• Lead trial counsel in arbitration over breach of contract and trade secret claims arising from joint development of specialty photocurable polymers used in stereolithography systems (3D printing)
• Lead trial counsel in patent infringement action relating to various materials used in solid free-form fabrication (3D printing)
• Lead trial counsel defending against patent infringement claims against acquired company on parent company’s own patents, asserted by licensee, in field of selective laser sintering (3D printing)
• Lead trial counsel in lawsuits alleging copyright infringement on behalf of multiple fine artists (painters, rug designer, etc.), including issues arising under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• Product Liability

• Lead trial counsel defending product liability claims against a respirator manufacturer brought by over 50 plaintiffs who alleged respiratory disease, including mixed dust pneumoconiosis from inhalation of silica-based particles (from calcined diatomaceous earth)
• Real Property
• Lead trial counsel representing commercial landlord in litigation involving retail tenant
• Lead trial counsel representing restaurant tenant in litigation involving shopping mall landlord
• Securities

• Lead counsel for defendant against claims by two former employees that stock options were granted as compensation; obtained summary judgment; affirmed on appeal
• Lead company counsel defending shareholder derivative action for breach of fiduciary duty and corporate waste after company settled governmental investigations into alleged payment of illegal surcharges; complaint deemed demand; demurrer sustained on response of special litigation committee
• Lead trial counsel defending third-party complaint seeking indemnity for claims arising from initial public offering on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng exchange
• Lead trial counsel defending claims in multiple arbitration proceedings against broker-dealer employees suing for losses incurred when auction rate securities markets became illiquid
• Lead trial counsel for municipality plaintiff who sought rescission of interest rate derivative swap transaction, disgorgement of fees earned by defendants from those transactions, and fraud damages

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

Honors

• Public Counsel’s President’s Award for Outstanding Pro Bono Service, 2024 (inaugural)
• Public Counsel’s Volunteer of the Year in 2021 (for litigation representing a Ph.D. candidate with claims against the university), in 2017 (for work representing operators of family childcare homes), in 2013 (for work representing victims of mortgage and other consumer fraud) and in 2012 (for work representing applicants for childcare centers and homes)
• Recognized by The Best Lawyers in America for “Commercial Litigation” and “Litigation– Securities,” by Chambers & Partners in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers, by ALM Media and Martindale-Hubbell as a Top-Rated Litigator, and as a Southern California “Super Lawyer”
• AV Peer Rated by Martindale Hubbell 

Memberships and Professional Activities/Affiliations

• President, Los Angeles Chapter, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, 2012–2013; Member, Board of Governors, 2004–2013; Chair, ABTL Annual Seminar, 2008
• Member and Past Chair, Board of Directors, Public Counsel, 2006–2025; Member, Executive Committee, 2013–2025
• Member, Executive Committee, Litigation Section, Los Angeles County Bar Association, 2013—2025; Co-Chair, LACBA Complex Court Symposium, 2014–2016
• Pro Bono Chair, Jones Day, Los Angeles Office, 2000–2014
• Adjunct Law Professor, Trial Practice, Pepperdine Law School, 1993–1995
• Participated in seminars and workshops teaching mediation advocacy, legal research skills, privilege and work product, civil procedure before trial, deposition, oral advocacy and trial techniques, and has appeared on the faculty at local, state and national continuing legal education programs
• Planned, organized and participated as a moderator and panelist in multiple continuing legal education programs presented by The Rutter Group, including a periodic presentation of Civil Procedure Before Trial
• Admitted to State Bar of California, all U.S. District Courts in California, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and pro hac vice in courts in Indiana, Oregon, North Carolina, Texas, Washington and Hawaii

Background and Education

• Mediator, Cook Mediation, 2015–2025
• Managing Attorney, The Cook Law Firm, 2015–2024
• Partner, Jones Day, 2001–2014
• Associate, Jones Day, 1995–2000
• Associate, Riordan & McKinzie, 1992–1994
• Associate, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, 1990–1991
• Law Clerk to the Honorable Consuelo B. Marshall, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, 1991–1992
• J.D., UCLA School of Law, 1990
  • Editor, Law Review
• B.A., Psychology, Pacific Christian College (now Hope University), 1979