Elizabeth Pipkin

Practice Areas

Commercial Litigation, Technology, Trade Secrets, Business Disputes, Civil Rights.

Professional Memberships

- Northern District of California

- Attorney Advisory Committee (2026-present)

- Professional Conduct Committee (2024-present)

- Practice Program Committee, Board of Directors (2016-present)

- Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, Past President (2020-2022)

- Ninth Circuit Judicial Council Lawyer Representative (2017-2019)

- Harvard Club of Silicon Valley

Awards

Education

Experience

Recognized as one of California’s top trial lawyers, Elizabeth Pipkin is a courtroom veteran who brings keen strategic thinking to every step of litigation. In addition to her trial work, she has handled many sensitive investigations and frequently assists clients in risk management. Clients have described Elizabeth as “an excellent trial lawyer” who “communicates well” and has a “strong ability” to solve difficult problems.

Representing plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts, Elizabeth’s cases have covered areas including class actions, claims related to fraud, business disputes and breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation, defamation, and real estate disputes, among others.

Highly respected by her peers in the legal industry and greater business community, Elizabeth has been selected to numerous “Top” lists produced by the Daily Journal, National Trial Lawyers of Northern California, and the Silicon Valley Business Journal, to name a few.

Elizabeth has been quoted in The New York Times, Wired Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, The Los Angeles Times, and Techdirt, and she has appeared on broadcast outlets such as KQED, NBC Bay Area, and Al Jazeera America. She has spoken at Stanford Law School, the SMU Dedman School of Law, and the Practising Law Institute.

Work Highlights

- Obtained the complete dismissal of federal action for fraud, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, against a Chinese public company in the solar energy industry. The dismissal was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit on appeal.

- Obtained decertification of a class action brought by consumers under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the California Unfair Competition Law, against a major Silicon Valley technology company.

- Successfully petitioned for and retained rehearing en banc. The ruling from the panel of 11 Ninth Circuit judges overturned a three-panel decision of the Ninth Circuit, mandating that the firm’s client should be awarded the vast majority of her attorney’s fees.

- Obtained the complete dismissal of an action filed against a commercial lender in a dispute involving a failed merger between two companies in the clean energy industry.

- Obtained the first-ever court order requiring the federal executive branch to remove a person wrongly included on a post-9/11 terrorist watchlist. The client was a Malaysian former Stanford Ph.D. student who was erroneously watchlisted and barred from returning to the United States. After eight years of litigation and a trial, our client’s name was fully cleared.

- Represented a major hard disk drive manufacturer in an action alleging trade secret misappropriation and defamation. The case settled on confidential terms, including a stipulated judgment in client’s favor.