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Attorneys

Christian E. Picone

Partner

Business Litigation; Environmental; White Collar Criminal Defense

Mr. Picone represents individuals and businesses in both civil and criminal litigation at the state and federal levels, with a focus on intellectual property disputes, complex commercial and tax litigation, criminal defense, and environmental defense. In addition, Mr. Picone has successfully represented custom automotive companies in the increasingly criminalized area of environmental law.

Prior to joining Berliner Cohen, Mr. Picone worked as a lead felony prosecutor. Mr. Picone has conducted thirty-six jury trials to verdict.

Education/Honors

Drake University Law School, J.D.
University of Rhode Island, B.A., double major in Philosophy & Political Science

Representative Cases

Successfully defended an executive of a financial services company in a federal felony jury trial against charges of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud; obtained a hung jury resulting in a no-jail misdemeanor offer from the prosecution
Successfully represented a startup biomedical company and its founder in a U.S. Attorney and SEC prosecution for securities fraud; obtained a deferred prosecution agreement with a dismissal of the federal indictment and resolved the SEC civil complaint with a minor financial penalty
Successfully defended a circuit-board maker in a state environmental disposal investigation resulting in no charges
In two successive litigations brought by the California Air Resources Board, negotiated favorable settlements for two premier custom motorcycle manufacturers in the United States
Defended owners of a premier South Bay developer in an IRS dispute regarding the validity of long-term union loans collateralized with life insurance proceeds; pending decision from the Tax Court; after the trial the IRS changed its method of prosecution of these loans on a national basis
Defended a multi-national corporation against claims of misappropriation of trade secrets contained in Java source code and misappropriation of corporate opportunities; obtained a favorable settlement after aggressive technical discovery and motion practices
Obtained an unconditional dismissal of a federal indictment on eve of trial related to a mortgage application after a detailed defense investigation and the timely employment of expert witnesses
Obtained dismissal of a state environmental complaint in which the District Attorney sought hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties and fines, for a Civil Compromise after an aggressive discovery practice