- Managing Partner: Sandra Seville-Jones
- Number of partners: 87
- Number of lawyers: 172
Firm Overview:
Since its founding in 1962, Munger, Tolles & Olson has served clients in their most important and complex cases and transactions. Having built a reputation for succeeding in high-stakes trials and negotiating major corporate deals, the firm has earned the trust of clients in many industries.
With offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the firm maintains a national and international presence. Clients have said that they call on Munger Tolles in “precedent-setting cases that require a creative mind” and in cases that require an “army of trial lawyers capable of waging war”. The firm has built its reputation by providing clients with exceptional judgment, creative thinking and a deep commitment to solving their problems.
Munger Tolles is composed of some of the most qualified and innovative lawyers in the nation. These attorneys are extraordinarily talented, and nearly 70 percent served as law clerks to federal judges. Nineteen were clerks to U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Many litigators honed their courtroom skills while serving as Assistant U.S. Attorneys and a number of them have advanced degrees in physics, engineering and medicine, among others.
The firm’s lawyers are also committed to serving the community as well as clients. Munger Tolles is a charter signatory to the American Bar Association’s pro bono challenge and consistently devotes more than three percent of collective attorney time to delivering pro bono legal assistance.
Commitment to diversity is an integral part of the culture at Munger Tolles as well. The firm is currently led by its second female managing partner and consistently ranks in the Top 5 of The American Lawyer’s Diversity Scorecard.
Main Areas of Practice:
Munger Tolles is a full-service law firm. A brief overview of the firm’s recent litigation work includes representing:
• Bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach, his company DoubleLine Capital LP, and several DoubleLine employees against their former employer, TCW. After seven weeks of testimony, a Los Angeles jury found no damages on the TCW claims against Gundlach and awarded Gundlach $66.7 million in unpaid wages
• Wells Fargo, serving as national counsel guiding the bank through its global RMBS exposure, including acting as lead counsel for Wells Fargo in all class and individual litigation nationwide by institutional investors in Wells-sponsored RMBS
• Bank of America in a series of lawsuits arising from the failure of Taylor Bean & Whitaker. In motions directed to the pleadings, the court dismissed all of BNP and Deutsche’s claims for indemnification, and dismissed other claims where the court found the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. The court also ruled in Bank of America’s favor on a critical timing issue, holding that BNP and Deutsche may sue only with respect to the most recent notes that they purchased and may not reach back to prior note issuances to assert earlier breaches
• The major music companies, in shutting down one of the most notorious file-sharing services — LimeWire — and obtaining a settlement of more than $100 million in the midst of the trial
• Abbott Laboratories in:
• A case that marks a sea change in how patent cases are litigated. Munger Tolles won a landmark en banc Federal Circuit Court ruling that fundamentally changes the standards for determining inequitable conduct before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
• Its defense against GlaxoSmithKline alleging Abbott violated an antitrust law. The jury found, in favor of the firm’s client, that no antitrust laws were violated
• Dick clark productions, inc. and Red Zone Capital, in a contract dispute with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association involving the rights to produce and distribute the Golden Globe Awards Show after 2010.
• Brazil’s largest online social gaming company, Vostu, in defending against copyright litigation brought by Zynga in the United States and Brazil over Zynga’s most popular social games
A brief overview of the firm’s recent corporate work includes representing:
• Berkshire Hathaway in:
• Its $5 billion investment in Bank of America announced in August 2011
• Its definitive agreement to acquire The Lubrizol Corporation in a $9.7 billion transaction, making it one of the largest acquisitions in Berkshire Hathaway’s history
• Its merger agreement with Wesco Financial Corporation. Berkshire acquired the remaining 19.9% of the shares of Wesco’s common stock that it does not own in exchange for cash or shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class B common stock
• Air Lease Corporation, a startup that has quickly become a leading force in the aircraft leasing business, in over $3.8 billion debt and equity issuances, and its $900 million initial public offering on the NYSE
• 99 Cents Only Stores, in its $1.6 billion sale to Ares Management LLC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
• Vivendi and its subsidiary Universal Music Group, as U.S. counsel in the $1.9 billion agreement to purchase EMI’s recorded music division from Citigroup Inc
• Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta (and their company, Fertitta Entertainment) in their joint venture with the former lenders to Station Casinos to purchase Station’s gaming properties and land holdings out of bankruptcy in a deal valued at $4 billion
Areas of PracticeAntitrust
Bankruptcy
Corporate
Entertainment
Environmental
Intellectual Property
Labor and Employment
Litigation
Real Estate
Tax
Technology
White Collar