James P. Chou is principally engaged in complex commercial litigation, including trial and appellate work, and has litigated and advised clients in a variety of areas, including trade secrets, false advertising, trademark infringement, contracts, white collar investigations, franchise law, securities, financial restructuring, and real estate disputes.
Most recently, Mr. Chou defended a web technology company in a trade secrets litigation brought in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he co-tried a four-day evidentiary hearing relating to the case. The case led to three “Decisions of Interest” and two front page articles in the New York Law Journal.
Mr. Chou also currently represents the New York County Democratic Committee in Lopez Torres v. New York State Board of Elections, a First Amendment associational rights case involving the constitutionality of New York’s convention system for nominating judicial candidates for the state’s Supreme Court. The case was profiled in the New York Law Journal as one of the Top Ten Cases of 2004. In connection with the case, Mr. Chou co-tried a 12-day evidentiary hearing before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and participated in appeals to the Second Circuit and the United States Supreme Court, which decided the case in January 2008.
In 2005, Mr. Chou was appointed by the New York Democratic Committee to serve as the panel administrator of its Independent Judicial Screening Panel, which reviewed the qualifications of judicial applicants for Civil Court and Surrogate Court in Manhattan.
Mr. Chou currently sits on the Board of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association as its Northeast Regional Governor. He is also the incoming President-Elect (2008) of the Asian American Bar Association of New York and previously served as Treasurer (2007) and as a director (2006). He is also a member of the Firm-wide Pro Bono Committee and a member of the Firm’s New York Office Diversity Committee.
Mr. Chou received his B.A. magna cum laude in 1993 from New York University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. in 1996 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a member of the Journal of Legal Ethics. Mr. Chou is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bars, and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.