BENJAMIN N. GLUCK

LOS ANGELES - Benjamin N. Gluck is a principal focused on white collar criminal defense at Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks, Lincenberg & Rhow, P.C. He's been with the firm since 1999.

He credits a summer program during law school -- during which he worked on a death penalty appeal pro bono -- with rousing his interest in criminal defense work. Later, his clerkship with U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson of Los Angeles set his course for a career at Bird Marella.

"Dean Pregerson is a wonderful man and judge," Gluck said. "I got to see criminal and civil litigation up close. He told young lawyers to be brave enough to do what you want in the law -- don't follow the pack."

Pregerson, now a senior judge, was friends with A. Howard Matz, a Bird Marella co-founder who spent 15 years on the federal bench in the Central District before returning to the firm as a senior counsel. "Pregerson told me, 'Join up with Bird Marella,'" Gluck said. "And I did. It was a very influential clerkship."

Recently, Gluck successfully concluded his long-running defense of Kareem Ahmed, the CEO of a doctors' billing service, Ontario-based Landmark Medical Management, in a 17-defendant $300 million health care fraud prosecution in Orange County. Gluck twice won dismissal for his client and the return of some $20 million in assets.

The judge dismissed the matter this year on Gluck's showing that the prosecution mishandled attorney work product material seized in a 2013 raid of Landmark's offices.

"The judge ruled that the prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that their case isn't affected by the privileged material they saw," Gluck said. "They tried but failed, and they had nothing else to proffer. They dismissed the case and did not appeal." People v. Ahmed, 16CF1351 (O. Co. Super. Ct., filed May 20, 2016).

In 2016, Gluck won dismissal for the first time by identifying critical errors in the grand jury process and litigating that claim to the state Supreme Court. "The client is very happy this long road is over," Gluck said.

In another high-profile case, Gluck successfully led the forfeiture litigation for about 30 clients in the U.S. Private Vaults case, in which property was searched and seized in a March 2021 government raid in Beverly Hills. Gluck won his clients' right to proceed anonymously and obtained the return of more than $25 million in seized assets. Among the cases was Coe v. USA et al., 2:21-cv- 03019 (C.D. Cal., filed April 7, 2021).

"I'm still surprised by the government's plan to seize all that content and expect everybody to say fine," Gluck said.

He added: "Knock on wood, there aren't that many lawyers so happy with their careers, but thanks to Judge Pregerson, I'm one of the few."