About MTO

In 1962 seven lawyers founded Munger, Tolles & Olson with the belief that a law practice of the highest quality could be established in a creative and stimulating environment. Today, MTO’s 191 lawyers are known for trying bet-the-company cases and negotiating deals that shape our corporate landscape. In 2008, MTO’s accomplishments earned it first place on The American Lawyer’s “A-List” of the nation’s most elite law firms.

Our Work

Clients turn to MTO when the stakes are high. In a survey conducted by The American Lawyer, the firm’s clients said that they called on MTO in “precedent-setting cases that require a creative mind" and in cases that require an "army of trial lawyers capable of waging war.” MTO has built its reputation by providing clients with exceptional judgment, creative thinking, and a deep commitment to solving their problems.

MTO’s work is national in scope. Our principal areas of practice include bankruptcy, corporate, environmental, labor and employment, litigation, real estate and tax.

MTO is committed to providing exceptional service to its clients in a cost-effective manner. With a one-to-one partner-associate ratio, we staff our matters leanly with partners providing strategic leadership from inception to conclusion. Where appropriate, we use paralegals and other personnel to handle tasks at lower cost.

Our People

To solve its clients’ toughest problems, MTO strives to associate only the most qualified and creative lawyers we can find.

Our 191 lawyers are extraordinarily talented and unusually diverse, nearly 70 percent served as law clerks to federal judges. Eighteen of our attorneys were law clerks to U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Many of our attorneys have experience in government, including service in the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Other MTO lawyers have graduate degrees in physics, literature, economics, history and medicine, among others.

MTO’s lawyers work in a democratic and egalitarian environment. The firm’s major decisions are made by consensus, and all attorneys are encouraged to participate in firm governance. The firm ranked first in the nation on The American Lawyer’s 2008 “A-List” based on four core professional values: success of overall practice/revenue per lawyer, pro bono practice, associate satisfaction and workplace diversity. MTO’s culture-and the loyalty and pride that it breeds-has allowed the firm to avoid the revolving door of lawyers that ill serves a law firm’s clients. MTO’s attorney retention rate is without parallel among our peers: almost 50 percent of the lawyers who joined MTO in the past 20 years still remain with the firm.

Our Community

Service to the community is a core aspect of MTO’s culture. Our lawyers serve on boards of community organizations, volunteer their time with local non-profits and political campaigns and lead bar activities.

MTO is deeply committed to pro bono service. MTO was one of the charter signatories to the American Bar Association’s pro bono challenge and consistently devotes more than 3 percent of collective attorney time to delivering pro bono legal assistance. The ACLU Foundation of Southern California recently presented its Equal Justice Advocacy Award to a team of MTO litigators that successfully defeated the government’s practice of forcibly medicating immigration detainees with anti-psychotic drugs to facilitate their deportation. We currently represent Equality California, a leading LGBT membership organization in California, as well as several same-sex couples, in a state Supreme Court challenge to California’s Proposition 8. Our corporate lawyers regularly advise non-profit organizations on intellectual property, employment, financing and other matters. We are proud to be one of a select group of firms to have received the American Bar Association’s coveted Pro Bono Publico Award.