Brad D. Brian

Two or three decades ago, national trial lawyers called on to defend big cases across the U.S. were based in Washington, D.C., and New York. Now California lawyers like Brian are increasingly getting the calls, he said. "I feel privileged and humbled to be looked upon to handle these matters," he added. "You have to be confident to be a trial lawyer that someone will call with a serious problem."

He is leading the defense of LG Electronics Inc. in multidistrict antitrust litigation involving more than $1 billion in claims over alleged price-fixing of cathode ray tubes used in TVs and computer monitors. Trial over the claims by Sears Holdings Corp. is slated for January 2017 in San Francisco; the other cases will be remanded to courts in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C. In re: Cathode Ray Tube Antitrust Litigation, 3:07-cv-05944 (N.D. Cal., consolidated Jan. 24, 2012).

Recently, Brian's team was retained as trial counsel by Plains All American Pipeline LP to handle the company's defense in multiple consolidated suits by plaintiffs claiming harm from the May 2015 pipeline breach and oil spill near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County. Brian said he couldn't comment on the case, which is in the early class certification stage. Andrews v. Plains All American Pipeline LP, 2:15-cv-04113 (C.D. Cal., filed July 1, 2015).

Brian has extensive experience in oil spill litigation. In 2014, he obtained favorable rulings from U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana for client Transocean Ltd. in multidistrict litigation arising from the 2010 Deepwater explosion and oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico. "We'd admitted negligence but persuaded the court that we were not grossly negligent," Brian said. That ruled out punitive damages. "We avoided tens of billions of dollars in liability."

Brian, who serves as Munger Tolles' co-managing partner, focused much volunteer time over the last several years as co-chair of a multimillion dollar "Building Justice" capital campaign for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, one of the region's frontline law firms for low-income residents. In January, the foundation broke ground on its new $17.6 million headquarters at its former Pico Union site. The building will be named the Ron Olson Justice Center for Munger Tolles name partner and Top 100 honoree Ronald L. Olson who, like Brian and firm partners Glenn D. Pomerantz and Bradley S. Phillips, have served as presidents of the foundation's board of directors. "We raised $12 million plus tax credits," Brian said. "If we get another million, the whole thing can be built without a mortgage." Olson agreed to lend his name to the building, Brian said, "after some coaxing."

— John Roemer