Overview
Brian Glennon is a trial lawyer with an esteemed career spanning over two decades. His successful representations of public companies, accounting firms, and professional services firms and their officers and directors cement Brian as a leading lawyer for securities litigation and accounting defense.
Clients turn to Brian for his strategic defense of complex commercial litigation, including securities fraud class actions, shareholder derivative lawsuits and enforcement actions brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He has achieved complete defense victories at trial on claims totaling nearly $3 billion and has obtained scores of dismissals of multibillion-dollar securities class actions in multiple jurisdictions. Brian’s known track record litigating high-stakes trials and class actions has earned national recognition by Chambers USA, Legal 500, Law360 and Daily Journal, among other legal publications.
Brian is a respected leader in the legal community, having served as the global co-chair of the securities litigation and professional liability practice at his prior firm, immediate past chair of the Litigation Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and current co-chair of the California Complex Courts Committee. He began his career as a law clerk to the Honorable Gary A. Feess of the US District Court for the Central District of California.
In his active pro bono practice, Brian has successfully represented many low-income tenants in landlord disputes, transgender and Afghani refugees in asylum proceedings, and families in adoption hearings.
Results
- Secured summary judgment, which was later affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on behalf of Oracle Corporation and its officers in a $3 billion securities fraud class action arising from a missed earnings forecast*
- Obtained a complete dismissal with prejudice of all claims at the pleadings stage on behalf of the world’s largest retail store, its Mexican subsidiary and its executives in a high-profile securities fraud class action filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York*
- Obtained complete dismissals with prejudice of all lawsuits at the pleadings stage on behalf of LogMeIn and its senior executives in a string of high-profile securities class actions filed in federal and state court, as well as a shareholder derivative lawsuit, following LogMeIn’s $1.8 billion acquisition of Citrix’s “GoTo” business*
- Obtained a dismissal with prejudice of all claims at the pleadings stage on behalf of one of the Big Four accounting firms in a securities fraud class action stemming from the New York attorney general’s investigation into alleged “bid-rigging” practices in the insurance industry*
- Achieved a complete dismissal with prejudice at the pleadings stage on behalf of one of the Big Four accounting firms in a shareholder derivative lawsuit alleging claims of professional malpractice and aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty in connection with its audits of a technology company*
- Obtained dismissals with prejudice, which were later affirmed on appeal, of all lawsuits at the pleadings stage on behalf of Insight Enterprises Inc. and its officers and directors in a securities fraud class action and multiple derivative cases following the company’s restatement announcement*
- Represented a Big Four accounting firm against claims of professional malpractice in two confidential arbitrations in which the claimants alleged more than $1 billion in damages; the first trial resulted in a complete defense verdict and the second, after weeks of testimony, settled on the eve of closing arguments for a nominal amount*
- Represented technology company Avago in its high-profile $37 billion acquisition of multinational software company Broadcom (this was the largest such transaction in United States history at that time)*
- Represented Hudson Pacific Properties and its board in a shareholder lawsuit arising out of a $3.5 billion acquisition and defeated the plaintiff’s emergency motion to enjoin the shareholder vote (a ruling that was named “Verdict of the Year” by The Daily Journal)*
- Successfully represented the founder, former chairman and CEO of Banc of California in a securities class action and three shareholder derivative lawsuits arising out of a short-seller report which resulted in a stock drop*
- Obtained dismissals with prejudice of all lawsuits on behalf of the former CEO of Wilshire State Bank in a securities fraud class action and related derivative cases following the bank’s disclosure of a material adjustment to earnings*
- Obtained a complete defense verdict in a complex commercial litigation jury trial involving alleged damages in excess of $100 million against a company and individual defendants; following four weeks of trial, the jury returned a complete defense verdict after deliberating for less than 24 hours*
- On behalf of minority shareholders in a shareholder derivative lawsuit, successfully argued the appeal before an en banc panel of the Nevada Supreme Court and obtained a reversal of the lower court’s decision in a landmark opinion that dramatically altered Nevada corporate law*
- Prevailed on more than a dozen motions before plaintiffs agreed to settle all claims on favorable terms in shareholder litigation involving derivative claims against World Oil Corp. and its affiliated companies*
- Obtained dismissal with prejudice of all claims at the pleadings stage on behalf of the former chief financial officer of a publicly traded company in a securities fraud class action involving allegations that defendants engaged in an alleged scheme to inflate stock prices through “stock-loan” transactions*
*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott.
Recognitions
Community
- Los Angeles County Bar Association, Complex Courts Committee, chair
- Los Angeles County Bar Association, Litigation Section, immediate past chair
- Chancery Club of Los Angeles, member
- Federal Bar Association, member
- Association of Business Trial Lawyers, member
- Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, member
- Ketchum-Downtown YMCA, board member
- Irish American Bar Association, member
Credentials
Education
University of California, Berkeley School of Law, JD, 2000
California State University, Chico, BA, BS, magna cum laude, 1997
Admissions
California
Courts / Agencies
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
California Courts of Appeal
US District Court for the Central District of California