HARDER STONEROCK LLP is a law firm based in Los Angeles, with offices in New York, that specializes in litigation and reputation protection. Our focus is on business, media, defamation, privacy, First Amendment, anti-SLAPP, entertainment, and intellectual property cases. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, high net worth individuals, and several of the world’s most famous people including A-list motion picture and television actors, major entertainment producers, and the President and First Lady of the United States.

Founding partner Charles Harder was named “California Lawyer of the Year” in Media (winning the CLAY Award) in 2017. In multiple years from 2011 through 2018, he was named one of the Top 100 “Power Lawyers” in America (one of only 30 litigators) by The Hollywood Reporter; listed for several consecutive years in the “Top 100 Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal newspaper; and named a “Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters.

Mr. Harder also serves as Editor and Co-Author of ENTERTAINMENT LAW & LITIGATION (LexisNexis 2011-2023 editions) (Matthew Bender). Many legal experts consider the book to be the definitive treatise on the subject and it is used as the textbook for law school classes, including at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Reputations can be harmed or destroyed by false statements and invasions of privacy, including on social media, websites, blogs and traditional media like newspapers, magazines, TV and radio.

We protect our clients’ reputations by preventing harmful statements or privacy invasions from becoming public in the first place, or forcing publishers to immediately remove them—with a retraction, correction, apology and monetary payment.

We have helped to protect the reputations and privacy interests of two of the world’s Top 10 largest corporations, as well as countless high net worth individuals, and scores of A-list celebrities, including motion picture and TV stars, recording artists, professional sports figures, and political officials, including the President and First Lady of the United States.

We litigate cases to trial and on appeal, specializing in business, media, defamation, privacy, First Amendment, entertainment and intellectual property cases. We have appeared in federal and state courts throughout the United States including California, New York, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois, Delaware, Maryland, Indiana, Nevada and many other states.

A few of our most notable accomplishments are:

• • • We won a $140 million jury verdict for Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) in a right of privacy action against Gawker Media, which caused Gawker Media to file for bankruptcy and sell its assets in a bankruptcy auction.
    • Mr. Harder obtained an $18 million trial verdict, and defeated a $5 million counterclaim, on behalf of Cecchi Gori Pictures against a Hollywood producer who misappropriated valuable motion picture assets.
    • We won a multi-million dollar settlement payment, full retraction, and apology for First Lady of the United States Melania Trump in a defamation lawsuit against the Daily Mail.
    • We defeated multiple federal lawsuits filed by Stormy Daniels on behalf of the President of the United States, and won multiple attorneys’ fees and sanctions awards totaling more than $500,000.
    • In the same case, we won a unanimous 9^th Circuit federal appeal (3-0 ruling), and also a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
    • We successfully defeated a federal battery and collective action employment discrimination lawsuit on behalf of the President of the United States and his campaign, filed by a former campaign worker as a representative for other former campaign workers.
    • We filed a multi-million dollar right of publicity, breach of contract and accounting lawsuit on behalf of three-time US Olympic Snowboarding gold medalist,  Shaun White, against Oakley and Luxottica.
    • We filed a major defamation lawsuit against Univision on behalf of Pastor Carlos Luna, a well-known and highly successful church pastor in Latin America, and defeated an anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss in the case.
    • We filed a $100 million defamation case against Univision and Telemundo on behalf of the heir to Mexican pop icon Juan Gabriel.

Please click on these links to learn more about our ATTORNEYS and PRACTICE AREAS, and RECENT CASES.