Craig M. Nicholas is the founding partner of Nicholas & Tomasevic LLP. Mr. Nicholas represents some of the largest companies in San Diego County and multi-national corporations in business litigation matters and sports law, including cases involving disputes from Japan to courts in the European Union. He also focuses on consumer, employment and shareholder class actions. The San Diego Attorney Journal honored Mr. Nicholas as Attorney of the Month in June 2012. In 2013, The San Diego Daily Transcript identified Mr. Nicholas as a Top Attorney in Corporate Litigation. San Diego Super Lawyers magazine selected Mr. Nicholas as one of the top attorneys in San Diego (2008-2024). Only five percent of the lawyers in California are named by Super Lawyers each year. Super Lawyers named Mr. Nicholas to its selective Blue-Ribbon panel of attorneys to evaluate qualified candidates in San Diego County. In April 2009, the Litigation Counsel of America Trial Lawyer Honor Society invited Mr. Nicholas to become a Fellow, an honor bestowed on less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers.

Some of his recent achievements include:

• On behalf of a class of over 400 Flowers Foods Distributors, settling their misclassification and wage & hour claims, on the eve of trial, for about $135 million in gross payouts, plus injunctive relief.

• Recovering over $30 million in retirement benefits plus injunctive relief on the eve of trial from Liberty Mutual Insurance on behalf of current and former employees.

• Recovering over $20.3 million in cash and other benefits in a class settlement with Proctor & Gamble regarding alleged false advertising of P&G’s probiotic supplements.

• Successfully certifying a class of hundreds of mobile tool distributors and recovering over $16 million in cash and other benefits in a class settlement with a Fortune 500 manufacturer and distributor of hand and automotive tools regarding their classification of distributors as “independent” contractors.

• Serving as co-counsel in several high-profile and high-value multi-district litigations such as In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation ($5.4 billion recovered); In re Lithium Ion Batteries Antitrust Litigation ($113 million recovered); In re Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation; data breach cases, and others.

• Currently serving as co-class counsel for a certified class of over 100,000 tenants of Equity Residential – the third largest apartment owner in the nation – in a lawsuit alleging that Equity unfairly overcharged its tenants for certain “late fees” and other charges.  His team recently received a liability verdict in their favor at trial and are currently litigating the proper relief to be awarded in excess of $40 million.

Mr. Nicholas and co-counsel appeared at the United States Supreme Court in a landmark case involving the intersection between arbitration agreements and federal law and tried a multi-week class action in the Los Angeles Superior Court. He has lectured law students on taking a case from District Court through the United States Supreme Court, and MBA students at California State University, San Marcos regarding business and legal obligations. Mr. Nicholas lectures at the University of California San Diego on legal writing and argument.

Mr. Nicholas received his Juris Doctor with cum laude honors from the University of Arizona College of Law. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of California at San Diego, where he graduated cum laude with a BA in political science. Mr. Nicholas was a partner at the antitrust and business litigation law firm of Wright & L’Estrange, recognized by San Diego Magazine as one of the leading antitrust law firms in San Diego, before founding the predecessor to Nicholas & Tomasevic LLP to offer client services on a larger platform. Mr. Nicholas is a former member of the Board of Directors of the William Enright Inn of Court. Mr. Nicholas served as the President of the California Young Lawyers Association for the State Bar of California. Mr. Nicholas has given seminars on expert witness law in California and civil litigation matters.