Aalok Sharma is the Hiring Partner of the Los Angeles office and a partner in the Firm's US Disputes Group. He is also in charge of the Los Angeles office Associates' Committee.

Aalok has a national and international practice handling complex business disputes. Aalok has extensive trial experience in federal and state courts and before arbitral tribunals. He represents clients in high-stakes litigations in a variety of industries including social media, real estate, hospital, advertising, accounting, manufacturing, banking and energy. His practice includes cases involving contract disputes, privacy and defamation, trade secrets and unfair competition, real property disputes and corporate governance disputes.

Aalok's work and courtroom success has earned him recognition as a leading lawyer in the legal community. In 2011, Aalok was recognized as one of the "Top 20 Lawyers in California Under the Age of 40" by the San Francisco Daily Journal and the Los Angeles Daily Journal, leading California legal newspapers.

Aalok's notable clients include Facebook, Inc., Children's Hospital Los Angeles, SunCal Companies, Valero Energy Company and McKinley Children's Center.

Some of Aalok's current and recent engagements and cases are described below: 

• Facebook, Inc.: Aalok is Facebook's international outside counsel, responsible for handling all of Facebook's international litigation; 
• Co-chaired 5-day federal court trial: Venture Corporation Limited ("Venture") v. Wherify Wireless, Inc. ("Wherify")(CV04-8583RGKI). Filed suit on behalf of Venture to recover millions of dollars for the product it manufactured for Wherify. Wherify filed a counterclaim seeking over US$95 million in lost profits and compensatory damages. A final judgment was entered in favor of the Firm's client and Wherify was denied any amount of its US$95 million lost profits and compensatory damages claim; 
• Co-chaired 10-day state court trial: Aharoni v. Malibou Lake Mountain Club, Ltd. (BC 302066). Defended Malibou Lake Mountain Club in a real property dispute involving thirteen causes of action, including breach of contract claims, breach of fiduciary duty claims, claims alleging violations of the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act ("Davis-Stirling Act"). A final judgment was entered in favor of the Firm's client as to every cause of action, and included an attorneys' fee award in our client's favor in excess of US$1 million; 
• First chaired arbitration trial before three-judge arbitral panel representing the plaintiff in a multi-million dollar breach of contract action concerning the performance of professional legal services. Obtained favorable verdict for the Firm's client; 
• Representation of a cable service provider in defense of class and unfair competition claims on behalf of cable television, telephone and Internet subscribers alleging the late fee assessed by the provider violated state unfair competition laws. The Court granted summary judgment in favor of the Firm's client. The court of appeal affirmed. Utility Consumers' Action Network, Inc., v. AT&T Broadband of Southern Cal., Inc., et al., 135 Cal App. 4th 1023 (2006); 
• Representation of a cable service provider in defense of class and unfair competition claims alleging improper billing for service outages; 
• Representation of the California Republican Party regarding reapportionment and redistricting litigation; 
• Representation of an advertising agency against the former agency president and officers, their new company, and their financial backer for unfair competition, breach of fiduciary duty, trade secret violations and breach of contract. This case resulted in a favorable settlement for the client; 
• Representation of an energy company concerning federal preemption issues before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; and 
• Representation of a national accounting company in defense of claims concerning accounting malpractice, negligence and fraud.

Bars and Courts
California State Bar
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
US District Courts for the Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern Districts of California

Education
JD, Loyola Law School Los Angeles, Editor, Loyola Law Review, 1999
BA, University of Washington, Economics, with Honors, 1995

Professional Associations and Memberships
Association of Business Trial Lawyers
Los Angeles County Bar Association
Member of the Board of Directors of McKinley Children's Center

Publications
Co-author "Late Fees Protected From Class Action Attack by White & Case Victory," California Litigation Report, September 22, 2006
Co-author, "Satisfaction Not Guaranteed: California's Conflicting Law on the Use of Accord and Satisfaction Checks," 33 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 1, 1999

Languages
English

Citizenship
United States