About Joanna M. Hill

Joanna Hill focuses her litigation practice on matters involving copyright, trademark, rights of publicity, breach of contract, defamation and fraud claims. Notably, her successes were highlighted in Variety's 2018 Legal Impact Report as an attorney who is "Up Next" in the entertainment and media world.

Supporting diversity and pursuing justice

As co-chair of Katten's Los Angeles — Century City office's Minority Associates Committee, Joanna is committed to fulfilling the firm's commitment to diversity. She has also taken on a number of pro bono matters, including asylum petitions, adoptions and cases involving Section 1983 violations.

During law school, Joanna was an editor for the William B. Greene Hale Moot Court Honors Program. In addition, she worked for the Post-Conviction Justice Project, where she represented incarcerated women at their parole hearings and advocated for adults sentenced to life without parole for crimes committed while they were still juveniles.

Prior to practicing law, Joanna was a high school history teacher in Los Angeles.

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Practice Focus

  • General litigation
  • Intellectual properties litigation
  • Copyrights and copyright litigation
  • Entertainment and media litigation

Representative Experience

  • Represented Seth MacFarlane, Media Rights Capital and Universal Studios in high-profile copyright case. Plaintiff, Bengal Mangle Productions, alleged in suit filed in US District Court for the Central District of California in July 2014 that anthropomorphic teddy bear from the movie Ted was "strikingly similar" to its character, Charlie, a teddy bear from plaintiff's Web series. We obtained stipulation for dismissal of the suit, which cannot be refiled.

News

Practices
Industries
Education
  • University of Southern California Gould School of Law, JD
  • Loyola Marymount University, BA
Bar Admissions
  • California
Court Admissions
  • US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
  • US District Court, Central District of California
Recognitions
  • Variety
    Legal Impact Report, Up Next, 2018