Neil Papiano

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Neil Papiano was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1934. He played football and baseball at Stanford University, where he received his B.A. in 1956 and his M.A. in 1957. He received his LL.B. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1961, and affiliated with Phi Delta Phi. He was admitted to the State Bar of California the same year. He is a member of the Los Angeles County and American Bar Associations. His practice areas are Civil Litigation and Appellate Practice, Entertainment Law, Libel and Defamation Litigation, Corporation and Securities Law. He is the managing member of the law firm of Iverson, Yoakum, Papiano, and Hatch.

In the mid 1960's Mr. Papiano turned down a judgeship offered by then-California Governor Ronald Reagan in order to continue actively practicing law. His civic activities include, but are not limited to, the U.S.O. Board of Governors 1967 - 1976, and the Board of Trustees of American University, Washington D.C., from 1981-1995. He is currently on the Board of Advisors of the Alzheimer's Association of Los Angeles.

Papiano made a generous donation to the Los Angeles Zoo for a children’s play park. The park was subsequently named in his honor. Another of Papiano's philanthropic endeavors is a children's play park in the neighborhood where he grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, in memory of his grandmother, Ida Cotten. He has established several scholarships (available at Stanford University and University of Utah), two of which honor Ruth Cotten Papiano Giolman, his mother, and Winifred H. Dyer, a vice-principal at the high school he attended in Salt Lake City.

[edit] Clients

Papiano represented C. Arnholt Smith in his 1974 sale of the San Diego Padres to Ray Kroc as well as former Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley in a $10 million dollar restraint-of-trade lawsuit against former MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and Major League Baseball. The latter lawsuit stemmed from Kuhn's 1976 decision to invoke the rarely-used "best interests of baseball" clause in order to void Finley's sales of Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to the Boston Red Sox and Vida Blue to the New York Yankees.

Representative Client List:

Ronald Wilson Reagan Prince Ahmed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Otto Kerner, Jr. MLB Hall of Famer, Reggie Jackson Nederlander Organization Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Underwriters of Lloyd's of London The Thoroughbred Corporation Oakland Athletics American Airlines Lockheed Martin Affiliated Computer Services Dow Corning Freddie Mac Pfizer, Inc. General Mills Liberty Mutual Insurance Hollywood Park Duty-free Shops U.S. Steel

Steve Garvey Ivana Trump Charles O. Finley George Steinbrenner Elizabeth Taylor Ed McMahon Willie Davis Bobby Frankel Petros Papadakis Buzzie Bavasi Walter Matthau Joan Collins Brooks Firestone Beverly Johnson Fred de Cordova Willie Shoemaker Pat Valenzuela Laffit Pincay, Jr. Bob Baffert Peggy Lee

Papiano has successfully mediated numerous labor strikes with Rev. Jesse Jackson, and has had favorable outcomes in suits against Warner Brothers, the National Enquirer, Santa Anita Park and Clint Eastwood. He also delivered eulogies at the funerals of both former Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley and famed attorney Johnnie Cochran.