Position: Member

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Admitted: California, 1977

Law School: Harvard Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, 1977); Managing Editor, Harvard Law Review, 1976-77

College: University of California at Berkeley (B.A., 1974); Phi Beta Kappa

Birth Date and Place: 

Practice Areas: Civil Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Aviation Accidents, Personal Injury, Wrongful Death

Additional Information: See: Vanessa Bryant v. Island Express Helicopters, Inc., et al.

BRAD BRIAN, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, has earned a reputation as one of the premier trial attorneys in the United States. He specializes in complex civil and criminal litigation. Mr. Brian is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, and for more than a decade, the Daily Journal has named Mr. Brian among the 100 most influential attorneys in California. California Lawyer recognized him among the top five commercial litigators in the state and National Law Journal included one of his cases among the top ten in the U.S. Mr. Brian is listed in Best Lawyers, in five separate categories including business litigation, criminal defense, legal malpractice and bet-the-company cases, and in Chambers USA, with the highest rankings in California, for white collar, government investigations and commercial litigation (for which he was ranked among the top 25 trial lawyers in the country). Mr. Brian has represented a multitude of Fortune 500 corporations including GE, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, AXA Financial, Warner Bros., Costco, Archer Daniels Midland, Allstate Insurance Company, KB Homes and others in their most challenging, high-profile lawsuits and government investigations. This work has included DOJ, SEC and/or NASD investigations for alleged securities, environmental, government contracts, public corruption, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or other violations; and conducting more than 100 internal corporate investigations. He also has defended companies against more than 40 lawsuits filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. Mr. Brian is also widely considered a “lawyer’s lawyer,” having represented a number of the largest law firms in the country in legal malpractice and malicious prosecution matters. He has represented (including through trial) a number of law firms and lawyers in civil lawsuits for alleged legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, conflicts of interest and malicious prosecution, and in criminal investigations of various types (including alleged false statements, false loan applications, and obstruction of justice). Mr. Brian has developed substantial expertise in the areas of attorney-client privilege and attorney work product. Mr. Brian’s recent significant representations are described below. In May 2009, Mr. Brian convinced a Chicago federal jury to reject claims that challenged Australian author Rhonda Byrne’s copyrights to The Secret, Simon & Schuster’s all-time best-seller. In September 2009, Mr. Brian successfully settled a royalty dispute brought by the heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien and HarperCollins Publishers against New Line Cinema, which cleared the way for filming “The Hobbit” movies. Mr. Brian successfully convinced the DOJ in 2009 to drop a nearly two-year investigation into a Fortune 100 company's options granting practices with no charges filed. At trial Mr. Brian defended The Boeing Company against a $7 billion breach of contract, fraud and tortious interference claims brought by ICO Global Communications Holdings related to construction and launch of 12 satellites for a telecommunications network. In July 2007, Mr. Brian won an appeal dismissing more than $100 million fraud and breach of contract claims against Health Net Inc. Mr. Brian served as lead counsel to a major law firm in a 2006 settlement of a class action including nearly 200 claims against the firm and a former partner who proffered allegedly fraudulent tax advice. In 2006, Mr. Brian won a defense verdict after a five-week trial in a malicious prosecution case against another major law firm. For client The Boeing Company, Mr. Brian successfully settled, in 2005, a multi-billion-dollar civil trade secret lawsuit brought by Lockheed Martin. The lawsuit, which stemmed from a 1998 bid on an Air Force rocket launch program, ultimately lead to the formation of a joint venture between the two companies. In acquiring subsidiary InVision Technologies, Mr. Brian represented General Electric in a 2004 investigation of alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Both companies were shielded from prosecution after voluntary disclosures to the SEC and DOJ. For Purdue Pharma in 2003, Mr. Brian successfully resolved all of the California suits against the company as part of the nationwide OxyContin product liability litigation. Mr. Brian was retained in 2002 by the companies of California Gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon after a jury had returned a $78 million fraud verdict against them, and successfully persuaded the trial judge to vacate that verdict and to enter judgment in favor of Bill Simon’s firms. Mr. Brian has been active in the leadership of the ABA Litigation Section since 1986, and served as the chair of the section in 2005-2006. During his tenure as chairman, Mr. Brian spearheaded an innovative pro bono program to train Sudanese lawyers to represent victims of the crisis in Darfur before the International Criminal Court. Mr. Brian’s additional involvement outside the firm includes: Board of Directors of the RAND Civil Justice Institute, current chairman Los Angeles Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, past president Central District of California attorney delegates to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, past chair Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Foundation, past president Board of Directors of the Western Justice Center Foundation, former member Indigent Defense Panel for the United States District Court in Los Angeles, former member Pro Se Panel for the United States District Court in Los Angeles, founder and former chair Teaching trial advocacy at the University of Southern California Law Center, Harvard Law School’s trial advocacy program, and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy Co-editor of Internal Corporate Investigations (ABA Section of Litigation, 3d Ed., 2003) Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP Board of Directors of the Joffrey Ballet, former vice chairman Board of Directors of the Los Angeles County Music Center, member and Chair of Dance Committee In 1977, Mr. Brian graduated magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School, where he served as the managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following graduation from law school, Mr. Brian served as law clerk to the Honorable John J. Gibbons of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit during the 1977-78 term. From 1978 to 1981, Mr. Brian was an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles, where he tried many criminal cases in the United States District Court and argued numerous appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Brian graduated with great distinction in 1974 from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was one of two recipients of the Robert Gordon & Ida Sproul award for the most outstanding contribution to the university. Mr. Brian was a member of the United States All Star Baseball Team playing in the World Amateur Games in 1972, was voted Most Valuable Player of the University of California Baseball team in 1974, was selected First Team All-Pac 8 (Southern Division) and Second Team Academic All-American in 1974, and was awarded an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship.

Firm Members: Gregory Stone

Firm Members: Mark Helm

Firm Members: Christian Wrede