Brendan is a generalist litigator with a focus in antitrust and consumer protection.  He represents both plaintiffs and defendants.  Since 2018, Brendan has been on teams that tried three matters involving antitrust claims or defenses, winning both that reached a judgment.  In the same span, he has represented claimants in settlements with a combined value of over $5 billion and a defendant in a multiparty settlement with an aggregate value exceeding $26 billion. 

 

At his prior firms, Brendan's clients included Allied World Assurance Company, Credit Suisse, Precision Castparts, and Qualcomm, among others.  Since launching his firm in June 2021, Brendan's clients have included Espacios Abiertos, Procore Products, Inc., the National Freedom of Information Coalition, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

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Brendan recently represented the State of Utah as a Special Assistant Attorney General with the Antitrust & Data Privacy Section of the Attorney General's Office in the multistate antitrust suit against Google challenging its Play Store practices.  In that capacity, Brendan helped lead the States' offensive and expert discovery; briefed the oppositions to Google's motions to stay trial (denied) and exclude the States' economist, Marc Rysman; prepared Dr. Rysman for a still-rare "hot tub" hearing on Google's Daubert motion, which Bloomberg noted he "appeared to survive"; and deposed two Google experts, five Google executives, the former CEO of GetJar, and a Qualcomm executive.  The model presented by Dr. Rysman calculating damages from lost app variety is believed to be among the first quantifications of non-price effects in an antitrust damages model–as one Susman Godfrey partner put it, an "innovation" for plaintiffs.  For his work in the Play Store litigation, Dr. Rysman was shortlisted for the Global Competition Review's 2024 award for economist of the year.

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Brendan's work at his prior firms is summarized below.

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Antitrust Litigation

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Brendan ​has been involved in some of the highest-profile antitrust battles of recent years.  He was a member of the trial and appellate team that secured a complete defense victory for Qualcomm in 2020 in an action brought by the Federal Trade Commission in the Northern District of California.  Brendan and the Qualcomm team were recognized by the Daily Journal, which named the matter a "Top Appellate Reversal" in 2021.  The FTC victory for Qualcomm also received the Global Competition Review's 2021 award for Behavioural Matter of the Year – Americas.  Brendan also represented Qualcomm in two trials against Apple involving antitrust claims or defenses, including as a member of the trial team before the International Trade Commission that obtained an initial determination recommending an injunction barring the importation of iPhones found to infringe on Qualcomm patents.  Following opening statements at the second trial in 2019, Qualcomm and Apple reached a global settlement that included a payment from Apple to Qualcomm.  The Qualcomm representation against Apple was awarded the Global Competition Review's 2020 prize for Litigation of the Year – Non-Cartel Defence.  Also in 2020, Brendan was among the counsel representing a plaintiff video game developer in obtaining partial temporary and preliminary injunctive relief in an antitrust suit against Apple and defended a medical devices company in antitrust litigation in California.

 

Brendan's other matters have included:

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Securities, M&A, and Corporate Governance Litigation

Appellate Litigation

• Represented minority shareholders of closely held corporation at the certiorari stage in the Georgia Supreme Court.

• Assisted in the representation of civil procedure professors as amici curiae supporting securities class plaintiffs in successful defense of the fraud on the market presumption of reliance at the Supreme Court.**  

Trial Litigation

• Represented Precision Castparts Corp. and its board of directors in proposed shareholder class action litigation in state court and federal court challenging its $37 billion acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway.

• Part of the team that represented a major consumer goods company in a dispute concerning purchase price adjustment claims of significant dollar amounts. 

• Assisted in representing an oil company and its board of directors in a consolidated putative shareholder class action in Delaware Chancery Court challenging its acquisition.  The transaction closed and plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the suit.**

• Assisted in representing a major financial institution in defense of multiple residential mortgage-backed securities litigations, including in the dismissal of over $8 million in certificates.**  

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​Consumer, Mass Tort, and Environmental Litigation

Appellate Litigation

• Assisted appellate counsel representing class plaintiffs in precedent-setting appeal in the Fifth Circuit affirming a common inference of reliance in civil RICO actions alleging a pyramid scheme.**  

Trial Litigation

• Among the resolution counsel for a global healthcare company in a major mass tort matter involving multiple litigations.

• Advised an agricultural company regarding potential mass tort exposure.

• Represented a technology company in litigation concerning CERCLA remediation and contribution.

 

Corporate Bankruptcy Litigation

• Part of the team that represented a utility company in Chapter 11 proceedings.  Brendan drafted a brief on behalf of nearly all retained professionals, including opposing counsel, regarding attorney fee review procedures. 

• Part of the team that represented Allied World Assurance Company, Ltd. in its successful motion to compel arbitration of an adversary proceeding brought in New York bankruptcy court by successors to the estate of MF Global Holdings, Ltd. to recover on excess insurance policies.  

• Part of the team that represented Credit Suisse as a senior secured creditor in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of UCI International.  Credit Suisse was repaid in full upon plan confirmation. 

• Part of the team that represented a major financial institution in a matter relating to post‑petition interest on claims arising from terminated ISDA swaps in the U.K. insolvency administration of Lehman Brothers International (Europe).

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Brendan was born in Staten Island, New York and grew up in central New Jersey.  He received his B.A. cum laude, with high honors in political science, from Boston College in 2012, where he was named a Scholar of the College and to the Order of the Cross and Crown and was a member of the college and departmental honors programs.  Brendan graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where he was an articles editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and received the Linda C. Quinn Memorial Scholarship recognizing merit in corporate or securities law.  In his first year of law school, he received three CALI awards for best exam, including in legal research and writing, and was then a judicial intern for the Hon. Aida M. Delgado-Colón of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

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While at Georgetown, Brendan was a research assistant to professor Alvaro Santos and a law clerk at Goldstein & Russell, PC, the Supreme Court and appellate litigation boutique.  Before launching his firm, Brendan was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York.

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Brendan is admitted to practice in New York and Washington, DC.

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**Matter prior to admission under the supervision of admitted attorneys.