Hon. Philip S. Gutierrez (Ret.) brings to JAMS over 35 years of legal experience as a trial lawyer and state and federal court judge. He served as a United States district judge for the Central District of California from 2007 to 2024. He served as chief United States district judge of the Central District of California from June 2020 through March 2024. He was a founding member of the United States District Court's Patent Pilot Program, developed to enhance expertise and efficiency in handling patent cases by assigning them to judges with specialized knowledge and interest in patent law. During his tenure, he presided over and settled a wide range of complex civil cases.

Prior to serving on the federal bench, Judge Gutierrez was appointed to the Whittier Municipal Court in 1997. After the unification of the Los Angeles court system in 2000, he served as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge until 2007. During this time, he actively participated in various judicial committees and enjoyed several teaching assignments.

Prior to serving on the bench, Judge Gutierrez was a trial lawyer for more than 10 years. His practice concentrated on complex business litigation, professional malpractice liability and insurance coverage issues.

The experience list below is compiled from cases handled as a judge.

Representative Matters

• Civil Rights
• Bivens action by party claiming an FBI agent caused his wrongful arrest and prosecution in Thailand for crimes he did not commit
• Section 1983 class action against the counties of Los Angeles and San Bernardino involving mistaken arrests due to a warrant for someone with the same name and birth date, asserting violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and violations of the Bane Act and common law false imprisonment
• Action involving alleged First and Fourteenth Amendment violations brought by a lecturer after being warned of disciplinary action for proposing a lesson plan deemed culturally insensitive
• Dispute involving attorneys, the City of Los Angeles, the California State Bar and two judges for alleged retaliation and conspiracy to violate First Amendment constitutional rights
• Class Action & Mass Tort
• Pharmaceutical purchaser’s action against leading therapeutics company alleging fraudulent promotion of off-label uses of two prescription drugs while concealing risks and side effects
• Class action alleging UCL and negligence claims, with plaintiffs seeking damages for increased fraud risk and monitoring costs, where hackers accessed defendant’s archived personal data and defendant concealed the breach by paying the hackers’ ransom
• Multistate false advertising claim alleging that defendant’s marketing practices were inaccurate and deceptive
• Shareholders class action alleging defendant committed securities fraud by making material misrepresentation and omissions regarding two drugs; plaintiffs claimed that defendants materially downplayed the significance of clinical studies suggesting the drugs had significant harmful side effects
• Putative civil rights class action brought by unhoused individuals claiming that the City of Los Angeles, through its police department and bureau of street services, confiscated and destroyed their personal possessions without notice or a hearing in violation of, among others, the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments
• Putative class action alleging that defendants committed securities fraud by making material misrepresentations and omissions, causing defendant’s cannabis company’s share price to rise; plaintiffs alleged material misrepresentations and omissions regarding the defendant’s company’s cultivation properties, the progress of its operations and its plans for the future
• Class action alleging false advertising along with various state statutory and common law claims against defendant’s line of products, claiming that the products did not actually contain a specific ingredient even though the product’s featured packaging and labeling claimed the ingredient was included
• Entertainment & Sports
• Violation of Sherman Act claim alleging that a cable network and major sports league engaged in an anticompetitive scheme by making networks pay for a sports-watching pass as the sole option for watching league games, which inflated prices through an agreement to restrict individual game streaming and sales
• Action by Mexican broadcaster against American broadcaster for breach of program license agreement alleging breach of exclusivity, unauthorized editing of programing and nonpayment of royalties
• Breach of contract claim for alleged royalties owed from consumer downloads of an artist’s songs and ringtones
• Action for defamation, sexual harassment and other claims, alleging that defendant made false statements about plaintiff to filmmakers after she rejected his sexual advances
• Environmental Law
• Class action for damages and loss of business and employment resulting from a major oil spill
• Operator of hazardous waste site brought action challenging the EPA’s issuance of unilateral administrative orders under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) following allegations of owning and operating businesses that contaminated the surrounding groundwater
• Action by city against multiple entities for damages claiming that industrial activities caused hazardous chemicals to enter into soil and groundwater tracts of land used for the city’s water supply
• Claims for violations of the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act for unauthorized discharges of materials into a local river from the development of a new housing development project
• California Environmental Quality Act challenge against hotel developers during entitlements process for potential harmful environmental issues
• Health Care
• Action involving insurance subscribers and health care providers alleging that health insurers manipulated a reimbursement database to artificially lower payments for out-of-network services, filing claims under civil RICO, Sherman Act, UCL and ERISA; the insurance subscribers and health care providers sought relief for the insurers' failure to provide proper reimbursement at promised usual, customary and reasonable (UCR) rates
• Health care action against a global medical device company alleging that the company engaged in Medicare fraud by paying kickbacks to physicians for using its cardiac devices, resulting in false claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid in violation of the False Claims Act and state law
• Real estate action against the City of Los Angeles and the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles alleging false representations in administering federal funds to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in compliance with disability and antidiscrimination laws, in violation of the False Claims Act
• Intellectual Property
• Copyright infringement claim alleging the illegal use of original compositional elements added to a remixed song without permission; the dispute centered on whether “the underlying musical composition(s)” referred to the unremixed song or the entire remix
• Trademark infringement claim against a DVD company engaged in the business of producing content with names and titles similar to major studio releases and distributing them with the stated purpose of profiting from consumer confusion
• Copyright infringement and breach of implied-in-fact contract claim alleging that a film studio used certain character concepts in its development of a feature film after the character concept was pitched to film studio
• Patent infringement claim against manufacturing and distribution companies regarding alleged infringement on method of generating chlorine dioxide gas
• Action alleging violations of Copyright Act, Lanham Act, and state law for the use of an image in a music video backdrop; the dispute centered on whether the image constituted fair use
• Action for copyright infringement and breach of implied contract brought by screenwriters against film studio for producing and distributing a feature film based on their screenplay’s subject matter
• Copyright infringement claim under California law by owners of a pre-1972 sound recording against a streaming company alleging unauthorized reproduction and public performance of recordings, which were not covered by federal copyright law but were protected under California Civil Code § 980

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

Honors

• Judge of the Year, Los Angeles County Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section
• Alumnus of the Year, UCLA La Raza Law Students Association
• Judicial Excellence Award, Mexican American Bar Association
• Daniel O’Connell Award, Irish American Bar Association
• Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws, Southwestern Law School
• Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence, Southwestern Law School
• Commencement Speaker, UCI School of Law
• Chair and Vice Chair, Ethics Committee, California Judges Association

Memberships and Professional Activities

• Member, Board of Governors, Association of Business Trial Lawyers
• Member, Judicial Advisory Board, Association of Business Trial Lawyers
• Executive Board Member, Paul R. Michel Intellectual Property American Inn of Court

Speaking Engagements

• American Bar Association, Antitrust Law Section, 72nd Spring Meeting, Views From the Bench
• Orange County Federal Bar Association IP Program, Litigating Intellectual Property Cases
• American Bar Association, Intellectual Property Fall Institute, Tales From the Bench
• JAMS, Pandemic and Beyond: Mediation’s Expanding Role in Access to Justice
• Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) Litigation Brown Bag Lunch Program, Civility in the Courtroom and in the Practice of Law
• Federal Bar Association, California Lawyers Association, COVID’s Impact on Federal Court Operations
• Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) Litigation Section, Discovering Implicit Biases During Trial
• University of San Diego Law School Symposium on the Federal Courts and Class Action Litigation, Chief Judges’ Roundtable
• American Bar Association, Litigation Section, A View From the Bench: Judicial Insights on Managing Complex Litigation and the Pandemic’s Lasting Impact
• Federal Bar Association, Taking the Steps to Federal Court
• Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Annual Seminar, Civility: How to Be Both Effective and Civil
• Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association, LAIPLA Goes to Court
• Women’s Law Association of Los Angeles (WLALA) 17th Annual Litigators Forum, Discussion of CARES Act for Federal Judiciary
• American Bar Association TIPS Motor Vehicle Program, A View From the Bench II: Judicial Insights on Managing Complex Litigation and the Pandemic’s Lasting Impact
• Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Federal Court Symposium Program, Class Certification and Rule 23
• California Lawyers Association Litigation and Appellate Summit, Judges’ Town Hall: Tips for Litigators
• Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Annual Seminar, Practicing in a Post-COVID Courtroom
• Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association (LAIPLA) Annual Judges’ Night Gala, Judges’ Night Panel Discussion
• University of Southern California Gould School of Law Intellectual Property Institute, Trends in IP Litigation Federal Judges Speak
• Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association (LAIPLA) Spring Seminar, Patent Venue Presentation
• Government Investigations & Civil Litigation Institute (GICLI) Program, A View From the Bench: Trial Tips and Best Practices in Complex Litigation
• Trial Lawyers of Mass Torts (TLMT) Bench and Bar Conference, Class Action Trends
• Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association (LAIPLA) Spring Seminar, Latest Trends and Techniques in Settlement of Cases
• Consumer Attorneys of California, Class Action Seminar, Judicial Panel Roundtable

Background and Education

• Judge, United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2007–2024
  • Chief Judge, 2020–2024
  • Member, Ninth Circuit Judicial Council, 2020–2024
  • Chair, ADR Committee for the Central District of California, 2009–2012
• Judge, Los Angeles Superior Court, 2001–2007
• Judge, Whittier Municipal Court, 1997–2001
• Private Practice, 1984–1997
• J.D., UCLA School of Law, 1984
• B.A., University of Notre Dame, 1981