Willenken is pleased to announce that Amelia Sargent has been elected to partner, effective March 9, 2020.
“Amelia is an incredibly talented lawyer who epitomizes our firm’s values with her collaborative team spirit, business-savvy approach, and client-centric dedication. Her contributions to the firm and to the legal community are immense. We are thrilled to welcome her to the partnership.”
— Jason Wilson, partner
Upon joining Willenken as an associate in 2017, Amelia was the driving force in forming the firm’s art, cultural, and educational institutions practice. She currently represents the Kingdom of Spain as amicus counsel in the widely watched cultural property case David Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation.
In her general practice, Amelia handles complex commercial disputes for both individual and corporate clients in industries ranging from electric car start-ups, to established biopharmaceutical companies, to museums and cultural institutions. In her relatively short tenure at Willenken, Amelia has achieved multiple victories on behalf of her clients, including: arguing and winning summary judgment on behalf of Lumens Co. Ltd. against $16 million in cross-claims, which was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit following Amelia’s oral argument upon appeal; successfully resolving allegations of trade secret misappropriation and other claims relating to the formation of a new electric vehicle start-up on behalf of nine individual clients; and drafting the case strategy that guided the firm’s representation of and ultimately secured a favorable settlement for one of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical companies in a complex breach of contract action.
Amelia earned her J.D. from Stanford Law School, her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California Berkeley, and her B.A. from Georgetown University. She began her litigation career at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles.
A regular contributor to American Bar Association’s Art & Cultural Heritage Law Subcommittee newsletter, Amelia also frequently speaks on trade secret issues and trends in CLE presentations, and teaches “Art and the Law” at the University of California, Hastings College of Law. She was also recently selected to the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity 2020 Class of Fellows for her dedication to promoting diversity in the legal profession.
