Bronwyn F. Pollock

Pollock specializes in complex commercial litigation with a focus on the banking and financial services, real estate, entertainment and insurance industries. She is a global leader in Mayer Brown’s litigation and dispute resolution practice. Clients include Bird Rides Inc., First American Title Insurance Co. and Caliber Home Loans Inc.

The office is largely closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so Pollock works from home. “It’s all remote all the time,” she said. “The channel never changes, and that appears to be the new normal. True, you get to see your colleagues’ faces and expressions via Webex, but my office used to be a social place and I miss that. A lot of informal team building went on there. Communication has to be a lot more purposeful now.”

For the Santa Monica-based shared electric scooter company Bird Rides Inc., Pollock has defeated potential class actions filed in an effort to find new applications of civil rights and disability laws.

“We have opportunistic plaintiffs trying to come at us with what they perceive to be a novel application of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” she said. Plaintiffs have sued the industry and the municipalities that allow them to operate, alleging that disabled individuals have been denied free and equal access to sidewalks because electric scooters and bikes are being ridden and incorrectly parked on sidewalks. Plaintiffs seek injunctive and declaratory relief, and $1,000-$4,000 in damages per incident.

Within the last six months, Pollock has secured dismissals in two of the cases. She and her client are waiting for a ruling on their motion to dismiss in a third case, and a hearing on Bird’s summary judgment motion as to the named plaintiff in the fourth case will be heard later this year.

As Mayer Brown’s Los Angeles hiring partner, Pollock has helped to build a diverse team. Within the Los Angeles litigation practice, 50 percent of all lawyers and 36 percent of the partners are women, 9 percent of the lawyers self-identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community and 31 percent self-identify as ethnically or racially diverse. In addition, 100 percent of the incoming class for the Los Angeles litigation department is diverse, she said.

“Growing up in the firm, I was mentored by Teresa Beaudet,” Pollock said, naming a former Mayer Brown partner who is now a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. “It became a priority to me that the old way of recruiting for the firm needed to change. Instead of looking chiefly at schools and grades, I wanted to build diverse associate classes reflecting the community at large.” Pollock is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Women in Law Empowerment Forum.

— John Roemer