Wilson Sonsini Adds Five Munger Tolles Partners

PALO ALTO, CA (November 8, 2021) – Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati announced today a dramatic step forward in the continued buildout of its national litigation practice with the addition of five decorated litigators from Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. Luis Li, Matthew Macdonald, Fred Rowley, and Mark Yohalem have joined Wilson Sonsini, while Eric Tuttle will be joining the firm later this month. All five members of the group, who bring vast experience with high-stakes trials, investigations, and appeals, will be partners in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

“These lawyers possess a level of talent that will benefit our clients enormously in their most significant legal disputes,” said Doug Clark, managing partner of Wilson Sonsini. “They bring diverse career experiences—from trying cases of all kinds in private practice and as prosecutors to arguing appeals throughout the country— in a cohesive group that has practiced together for years.”

Joining Wilson Sonsini’s litigation practice as of November 8 are:

• Luis Li, a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and noted white-collar defense attorney, who has built a career litigating high-profile matters in federal, state, and international courts. He has twice earned California Lawyer “Attorney of the Year” honors and has been recognized among the Daily Journal’s “Top 100 Lawyers,” among other recognitions. His trial representations as lead counsel include the successful defense of Plains All American Pipeline in a criminal matter arising from one of the largest oil spills in California history, and as co-counsel in the successful defense of Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon, in civil litigation arising from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and in representing the NCAA in the name image and likeness litigation related to college student athletes. During his career, which includes a decade as a federal and state prosecutor, Li has tried dozens of cases to verdict. He also has developed a robust investigations practice that includes representations of the University of California in relation to matters arising from the federal “Varsity Blues” college admissions investigation, the J. Paul Getty Trust in relation to Italian claims to objects in its antiquities collection, Scaled Composites in relation to the fatal test flight crash of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, and the Santa Anita Race Track in relation to a recent criminal investigation arising from a number of horse fatalities. He currently represents Vanessa Bryant, Kobe Bryant’s widow, in a privacy and civil rights suit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
• Matthew Macdonald, who represents clients in high-stakes commercial and crisis litigation. His key representations include PG&E in the lawsuits arising out of the 2017-2018 Northern California wildfires, MGM Resorts in claims related to the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival, and the LA Clippers in litigation over the construction of their new arena in Inglewood, California. He recently obtained a complete defense result in defending creditors against $600 million clawback claims in the GM bankruptcy. Before entering private practice, he served clerkships on both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Texas Supreme Court.
• Fred Rowley, who is widely recognized as a leading appellate advocate. A fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, Rowley was recently named one of the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Most Influential Minority Lawyers.” He has argued more than 50 appeals, and has served as lead counsel in dozens more. He has presented argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, multiple federal appeals courts, and state supreme courts, and, like Li, brings prosecutorial experience as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California to his practice. In the past year alone, Rowley won a major age discrimination appeal before the California Court of Appeal, which vacated a $30 million compensatory and punitive damages verdict. He is a past recipient of the Daily Journal’s “California Lawyer of the Year” (CLAY) Award for successfully defending the Norton Simon Museum in a closely watched ownership dispute. His win before the California Supreme Court in a worker’s compensation appeal, King v. CompPartners, was named one of the Daily Journal’s “Top Appellate Reversals of 2018.”
• Mark Yohalem, a former clerk for Justice Anthony Kennedy who has argued more than 40 appeals in federal and state courts. Another veteran of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Yohalem served as deputy chief of appeals. In the aftermath of the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, he participated in the intensely watched dispute between Apple and the FBI over the unlocking of the iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists responsible for the crime. His success in overturning a $417 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary earned him recognition as a “Legal Lion” in Law360. His other recent victories include dismissal of a pair of billion-dollar lawsuits arising out of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident, and summary judgment, along with seven-figure attorney's fees, on behalf of the founders of Beats Electronics, defeating a billion-dollar lawsuit brought by Monster and its founder.

Joining Wilson Sonsini later in November is:

• Eric Tuttle, a graduate of Caltech with a background in machine learning who combines deep technical expertise with sophisticated legal acumen. He specializes in untangling complex factual and legal issues to get the best results for clients, who have ranged across many industries, including the technology, entertainment, financial, and cultural sectors. He has represented Google in patent litigation, Ericsson in its long-running patent disputes with Apple over technology critical to cellular communications, and Warner Bros. in a dispute over the accounting for the Lord of the Rings films. Tuttle has tried a diverse range of cases to verdict. He also has substantial experience in litigation over the ownership of culturally significant artwork. He has represented the J. Paul Getty Trust in cross-border litigation, and helped secure for the Norton Simon Museum the dismissal of claims to recover paintings subject to Nazi-coerced sales during World War II, resulting in a California Lawyer “Attorney of the Year” award.

The five-lawyer group becomes the latest—and largest—addition in a strategic initiative to augment the firm’s national litigation practice with top-tier talent. Wilson Sonsini has more than 200 litigators across the firm. In the last three months alone, the firm has added three experienced, first-chair trial lawyers as partners in California: Susan Kay Leader, a Los Angeles-based commercial litigator with a record of success in class actions and bet-the-company lawsuits; Amy Candido, a San Francisco-based litigator who focuses on patent, trade secrets, and other IP disputes; and Jordan Jaffe, a patent litigator who chaired the autonomous vehicle practice at Quinn Emanuel and is also based in San Francisco. In 2020, the firm also added Tina Sessions, a litigator focused on antitrust and IP matters who joined the San Francisco office as a partner, and Victor Jih, a litigator focused on IP and litigation strategy matters who joined the Los Angeles office as a partner.

“Wilson Sonsini’s commitment to an outstanding trial practice and its stellar, historic client base are a compelling combination,” said Li. “We look forward to working with our new colleagues, and also note our gratitude to Munger Tolles & Olson and the outstanding lawyers we worked with there.”

“Even before the arrival of this group, our national litigation practice had an undeniable momentum about it,” said Caz Hashemi, a partner at Wilson Sonsini and head of the firm’s litigation department. “They have taken that to another level, deepening the trial and appellate skills that make us the counsel of choice for the most complex, high-value, and legally challenging pieces of litigation.”

“Wilson Sonsini is well known for its innovative spirit, not to mention its success litigating cutting-edge disputes in technology, intellectual property, and other areas,” added Rowley. “We could not pass up the opportunity to be a part of the growth of this forward-thinking firm.”

About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
For more than 60 years, Wilson Sonsini’s services and legal disciplines have focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. The firm is nationally recognized as a leading provider to growing and established clients seeking legal counsel to complete sophisticated corporate and technology transactions; manage governance and enterprise-scale matters; assist with intellectual property development, protection, and IP-driven transactions; represent them in contested disputes; and/or advise them on antitrust or other regulatory matters. With deep roots in Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini has offices in Austin; Beijing; Boston; Brussels; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, DE. For more information, please visit www.wsgr.com.