Neil A.F. Popović

Mr. Popovic is a partner in the Business Trial practice group in the firm's San Francisco office.

Areas of Practice

Mr. Popovic’s litigation experience includes a wide range of commercial disputes, including consumer class actions, white collar criminal matters (including internal investigations) and international litigation (including international arbitration) and counseling. Mr. Popovic also practices international environmental law, including representing clients in international negotiations. He taught international environmental law at Boalt Hall School of Law from 1996-2007, and he curently co-teaches a course in Resolution of Private international Disputes.  His commercial practice includes extensive experience litigating matters under California's Unfair Competition Law, Business and Professionals Code section 17200.

Mr. Popovic has represented a variety of clients including, Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, The Republic of Argentina, Asiacontent.com, Caremark, Inc., Concern Sojuzvneshtrans, Earthjustice, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Julia Butterfly Hill, Home Americair of California, iGlobe Partners, IMPAX Laboratories, ITT Sheraton Corporation, McDonald's Corporation, MCI, Inc., Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, Muzak Limited Partnership, MDS Nordan, Polyprima Karyareksa, PT, RSA Security Inc., The Republic of Congo, Seagate Technology and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

Prior to joining Sheppard Mullin, he was a shareholder at Heller Ehrman in San Francisco; and before that he was an attorney with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in San Francisco, and prior to that he practiced with a San Francisco civil and criminal litigation boutique.

Education

• J.D., University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, 1987, Note and Comment Editor, California Law Review
• M.A., Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1992, Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law
• Academy of European Law, Summer Session 1995.
• A.B., University of California, Berkeley, 1983

Clerkships

• Mr. Popovic served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alicemarie H. Stotler of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and Santa Ana
• Mr. Popovic was a judicial extern for Justice Joseph R. Grodin of the Supreme Court of California.

Admissions

• California

Memberships

• State Bar of California (International Section)
• American Society of International Law
• Board of Directors, EarthRights International
• Board of Directors, Center for Youth Development Through Law
• Advisory Board, California Center for Environmental Law and Policy
• Bar Association of San Francisco
• International Law Association (American Branch)
• Northern California International Arbitration Club
• Northwest Subcommittee, ICC Arbitration Committee (U.S.)

Articles

• Recovery Tactics Outlined for Foreign Takeover Losses  Oil and Gas Journal  06.25.2007
• BIT Implications of Recent Government Activities in Bolivia and Venezuela  Heller Ehrman Bulletin  09.2006
• Some Thoughts on KOREA SUPPLY—Monetary Remedies Under Section 17200  Heller Ehrman Bulletin  04.15.2003
• Some Thoughts on Kraus and Cortez  Heller Ehrman Bulletin (Summer 2000)  
• Women and the Environment , in Kelly Askin & Dorean Koenig, eds., women and International Human Rights Law (Transnational Publishers 1999) 
• Environmental Injustice on United States Bases in Panama:  International Law and the Right to Land Free from Contamination and Explosives, 38 Virginia Journal of International Law 401 (1998) (with J. Martin Wagner) 
• The Myth of Objectivity, in Human Rights, Environmental Law, and the Earth Charter (Boston Research Center for the 21st Century 1998)  
• CCRI’s Hidden Conflict: Prop. 209 Would Violate Human Rights Treaties Recently Ratified by the U.S. Senate, The Recorder, Oct. 9, 1996, at 4 
• Environmental Racism in the United States and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 14 Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 277 (1996) 
• In Pursuit of Environmental Human Rights:  Commentary on the Draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights and the Environment, 27 Columbia Human Rights Law Review 487 (1996) 
• Pursuing Environmental Justice With International Human Rights and State Constitutions, 15 Stanford Environmental Law Journal 338 (1996) 
• U.N. Special Rapporteur on Toxic Dumping, 8:1 International Toxics Investigator 9 (1996) 
• Humanitarian Law, Protection of the Environment and Human Rights, 8 Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 67 (1995) 
• The Game of the Name, Ms. Magazine, November-December 1994, at 96 
• Lawmaking in the United Nations:  The UN Study on Human Rights and Environment, 3 Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 197 (1994) (with Adriana Fabra Aguilar) 
• Sex, Violence & Rock ‘n’ Roll:  The First Amendment at the Close of the Millennium (St. Hieronymus Press 1994) (with David Lance Goines)  
• Using Environmental Law for Effective Environmental Management—Hungary (Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund/Environmental Management and Law Association 1994) (editor) 
• The Right to Participate in Decisions that Affect the Environment, 10 Pace Environmental Law Review 683 (1993) 
• Comment, A Human Rights Approach to the Labor Rights of Undocumented Workers, 74 California Law Review 1715 (1986) (published under former name Neil A. Friedman)