Karr & Allison, P.C.

  Theodore Allison has practiced law for over 26 years.  He has been in practice in Washington, D.C. since 1993, and in July, 2000, he co-founded Karr & Allison, P.C., a general litigation and transactional practice.  Before relocating to Washington, from 1984 to 1993 Mr. Allison was engaged in a national law practice in Los Angeles, California, in association with several major firms.  His work in the areas of commercial, antitrust and securities litigation included a substantial role in several multi-billion dollar lawsuits, including In re Petroleum Products Antitrust (MDL-150) and Gill v. FDIC  (In re American Savings) in the Central District of California, and the representation of banks, airlines, entertainment figures, law firms, and a variety of commercial enterprises.

    In addition to his work on behalf of growing businesses and entrepreneurs in the areas of corporate and commercial law, employment and intellectual property, his litigation practice has resulted in reported decisions in a number of significant cases.  In Carlsbad Tech., Inc. v. HIF Bio, Inc., 556 U.S. __, 129 S. Ct. 1862, 173 L.Ed.2d 843 (2009), he argued in the U.S. Supreme Court for the reinstatement of a traditional limitation on federal appellate jurisdiction over a broad class of trial court decisions.  You can listen to his argument in the Supreme Court at   http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2008/2008_07_1437/argument. 

   He established or clarified important rules in the area of employment law in Colbert v. Tapella, 677 F. Supp. 2d 289 (D.D.C. 2010) reversed, per curiam __ F. 3d __ (D.C. Cir. 2011), Jones v. Calvert Group, Ltd., 551 F.3d 297 (4th Cir. 2009), Peyton v. DiMario, 287 F.3d 1121 (D.C. Cir. 2002), and Morris v. EPA, 975 A.2d 176 (D.C. 2009).  Other reported decisions include Toledano v. O'Connor, 501 F. Supp. 2d 127 (D.D.C. 2007) (applicability of Federal Arbitration Act to a literary agent accused of obtaining copyright interests by fraud); Levant v. Whitley, 755 A.2d 1036 (D.C. 2000) (establishing rights of members of fraternal organizations); Leonard v. District of Columbia, 794 A.2d 618 (D.C. 2002) (on brief) (challenging actions of the District’s chief financial officer); Shane v. RTC, No. 91-56373, U.S. App. LEXIS 17011 (1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1017, 114 S. Ct. 1396, 128 L. Ed. 2d 70 (1994) (on brief) (defeating the claims of an executive whose financial institution was taken over by the RTC); and Magnecomp Corp. v. Athene Co., 209 Cal. App. 3d 526 (1989) (involving state long-arm jurisdiction over claims of foreign misappropriation of trade secrets). 

   Mr. Allison received his Juris Doctor degree in May, 1984, from the University of Southern California Law School, Los Angeles, California.  Since 1996 he has had a rating of AV (indicating the highest level of professional excellence and ethical standards) by the Martindale Hubbell International Law Directory.  In December, 2010, he was featured in the "Legal Elite Readers' Poll" in SmartCEO Magazine, naming 120 top business lawyers in the greater Washington area.  He is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, California, and Washington State.