Larson LLP

Former U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson teamed with former Arent Fox LLP California managing partner Robert C. O'Brien in 2016 to form Larson O'Brien LLP. O'Brien left in 2019 to join the Trump administration as national security advisor; he returned to the firm in 2021 and is now a partner emeritus.

The 11 active partners--the firm has 30 lawyers altogether, plus two counsel--have since opened a Washington, D. C., outpost. A London office is in the works. Speaking from Washington in late September, Larson said, "We have a lot of clients with business here, and we do a lot of work that involves the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission."

He called opening in London "a big step" that results from the representation of a company CEO and several European clients. "We are branching out, but at heart we are a collection of select people who enjoy working together at a firm of extraordinary excellence," Larson said.

Currently, partner Hilary L. Potashner, the Central District's former federal public defender who joined the firm in 2019, represents the defendants and appellants in a federal SEC enforcement action over allegations of a multimillion-dollar fraud against foreign investors.

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Yang, 5:15-cv-02387 (C.D. Cal., filed Nov. 19, 2015).

Potashner and Larson were brought on after the defendants had been ordered to pay more than $15 million in disgorgement and civil penalties, a sum the duo successfully appealed and has so far reduced to $4.5 million with a further appeal in the works.

Said Potashner, "Our work in SEC v. Yang is a great example of the breadth and depth of our experience as litigators in both trial court and appellate court. While pleased with the relief that we've already gotten for our clients, we intend to continue to vigorously litigate this case in order to achieve an even greater reduction in the amount of the final judgment."

Larson and colleagues in February helped finalize a $154 million settlement in federal securities litigation in a case where another firm leveraged Larson LLP's trial expertise. They were retained by the lead plaintiffs' firm, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, to serve as trial counsel on claims by investors that Snapchat's parent company mishandled its pre-IPO disclosures regarding the threat posed to its core business by rival Instagram. In re Snap Inc. Securities Litigation, 2:17-cv-03679 (C.D. Cal., filed May 16, 2017).

Paul A. Rigali, the firm's managing partner, who formerly worked at Arent Fox, said the Snap case illustrated one of Larson LLP's strengths. "It's an example of the reputation we've tried to cultivate as a trial-first firm. When Kessler Topaz saw that trial was imminent, they reached out and asked us to play a role as co-counsel. We stepped in relatively late, after Kessler carried the water for many years on the case."

The Larson team assisted Kessler in obtaining class certification and prepared for trial. "Then we flew back to New York for the settlement mediation," Larson said.

A signature case from the firm's white collar docket is the now-concluded defense in the blockbuster prosecution of San Bernardino developer Jeffrey Burum and his Colonies Partners LP investment group on bribe-taking charges. Larson and colleagues not only won a full acquittal for Burum after a 10-month trial but then came back in 2020 to score a $65 million settlement with the county after suing for retaliation, fabrication of evidence, malicious prosecution and conspiracy to deny civil rights. Colonies Partners LP v. County of San Bernardino, 5:18-cv-00420 (C.D. Cal., filed March 1, 2018).

--John Roemer