Hueston Hennigan LLP

Litigation

Newport Beach

Los Angeles

John C. Hueston and Brian J. Hennigan formed their trial law boutique in 2015 after working at Irell & Manella LLP. The new firm aimed at performing high-stakes litigation and white collar defense and investigations. “We started with just under 30 lawyers and now we have about 50 in less than four years,” Hueston said. “We’ve continued to grow so that we can handle simultaneously several bet-the-company cases.”

In the upcoming months, the firm will be conducting significant trials or arbitrations for the California Institute of Technology, Allegiant Travel Company, Taco Bell, Amazon.com Inc. and Whole Foods Market Inc.

Hennigan gave an example of the firm’s approach when in late September he attended a Hueston Hennigan presentation to federal prosecutors, seeking to persuade them to abandon a client’s planned indictment. “If you can convince the government not to bring charges, you are far ahead of the curve,” he said. “Once there’s been an indictment and a public announcement, it becomes a face-saving exercise for the prosecution — even if you have the same evidence you had before.

“When John and I opened the place up, we had in mind that we’d be a go-to place when savvy clients need out of court advice from accomplished trial attorneys in advance of trial.”

In addition, Hueston is prepping for his first oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court for client Nutraceutical Corp., a Utah-based nutritional supplement maker facing a class action over false advertising claims regarding its sexual performance product. Hueston successfully sought a writ of certiorari after a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel excused the plaintiffs’ failure to timely file his petition for permission to appeal a class action decertification order. Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert, 17-1094. The argument will likely take place in December, Hueston said.

He added the firm’s broad range of cases this year included the successful representation of Western Digital Corp. and its SanDisk subsidiary in an international multibillion-dollar dispute with Toshiba Corp. The case involved multiple arbitrations before the ICC International Court of Arbitration, applications for temporary restraining orders and injunctions, and litigation in Japan and in the California trial and appellate courts. After wins in each venue, Hueston said, the parties agreed to an out of court resolution favorable to his client in which Western Digital is entitled to invest alongside Toshiba in two new chip plants in Japan and receive a guaranteed supply of memory chips.

There’s also Hueston Hennigan’s ongoing defense of Edison International and Southern California Edison against criminal and civil claims arising from destructive wildfires and the Montecito mudslides. In re: Southern California Edison Fire Cases, JCCP 4965 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed April 18, 2018).

“We are called upon by industry icons like Elon Musk, Sumner Redstone and Alec Baldwin,” Hueston said. The firm will be defending Musk in the Thai diver defamation case and Redstone in his showdown with Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. It also represents Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX. For Baldwin, the firm obtained a seven-figure settlement over art fraud claims related to a counterfeit painting sold to the actor by a New York art dealer.

“I attribute our successes to the way our attorneys approach cases in a disruptive manner,” Hueston said. “Traditional litigation playbooks get thrown out the window as we earn most favored firm status with our clients.” As for growth, he added, “We have sought to grow slowly but organically. Some firms grow by buying practice groups, but we don’t consider that an organic approach. We are integrated, in the sense that every lawyer here knows every other, and that is something that is inevitably lost when by growing north of 80 attorneys.”

— John Roemer