Gary E. Cripe is one of California's Top Lawyers and a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum with extensive legal experience in: business counseling for both established businesses and start-ups, and; civil litigation representing both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation, including antitrust, bad faith, business disputes, catastrophic injuries, contractual disputes, construction defects, eminent domain, employee relations, healthcare, insurance, intellectual property, personal injury, product liability, professional negligence, medical malpractice, real estate, security system failures, shareholder rights, unfair business practices, technology, and toxic torts. His legal career spans nearly 36-years as a member of a renowned plaintiff oriented law firm; as a litigation partner with a major New York based law firm; as a principal in his own law firm for over 20 years, and; as outside general counsel for the largest privately held TV/Radio holding company in America, as well as Nature's Recipe Pet Foods, Elite Products and American Furniture Alliance.
While he was general counsel for Pappas Telecasting Companies, the TV/Radio station group grew, through strategic acquisitions, from 2 stations to over 30 stations to become the largest privately held broadcasting company in the United States. His responsibilities included coordination and oversight of mergers and acquisitions, interface with the FCC, negotiations with programming vendors, and litigation.
As general counsel for Nature's Recipe Pet Foods, Gary handled all litigation, coordinated and executed with the CEO, all aspects, (legal and business) of a worldwide recall of 15,000,000 pounds of pet food. The California Court of Appeal touted the company's recall efforts describing them as "exemplary." Also, as general counsel for Nature's Recipe Pet Foods, Gary fostered a bidding war between the Colgate Palmolive Company (NYSE) and the H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE) which culminated in the sale of the company for over $100 million.
As general counsel for Elite Products and American Furniture Alliance, Gary has successfully represented these businesses in various litigations including contractual disputes, intellectual property disputes and employee relation disputes, in addition to providing general legal and business advice and counsel.