Jennifer L. Bryant

Her practice focuses on high-stakes complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on legal challenges faced by the media, entertainment, and technology industries, including First Amendment, copyright, trade secret and privacy issues.

Ms. Bryant served as trial counsel for Vanessa Bryant in her landmark civil rights victory against the LA County Sheriff’s and Fire Departments for their improper photos of the victims of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, and seven others. The jury awarded Mrs. Bryant and her co-plaintiff $30 million in damages for their emotional distress, a result that was honored as a Daily Journal Top Verdict. Ms. Bryant also received the Daily Journal’s California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award for her work on the matter.

The past two years Ms. Bryant has been recognized as one of the 500 leading litigators in America by Lawdragon. In 2023, she was named in the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Women of Influence,” and she has also been named one of The National LGBTQ+ Bar’s “Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40.”

Ms. Bryant’s other significant representations include:

• FX Networks and Pacific 2.1 Entertainment Group in obtaining dismissal under California’s anti-SLAPP statute of a defamation and right-of-publicity lawsuit brought by actress Olivia de Havilland involving the series Feud: Bette and Joan.
• Netflix in obtaining dismissal under California’s anti-SLAPP statute of a putative class action lawsuit involving the series 13 Reasons Why.
• The LA Clippers in a series of cases brought by Madison Square Garden Company challenging the development of the Clippers’ new arena in Inglewood, California.
• The National Fire Protection Association, a major standard-setting organization, in litigation challenging whether standards lose their copyright protection when government bodies incorporate them by reference.
• Ten-X against a former executive and a competitor based on allegations of trade secret misappropriation, breach of an invention assignment agreement, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of a confidentiality agreement. The case was ultimately settled for a cash payment, continued injunction, and a public apology.
• SoundExchange, on behalf of the major and indie record companies and recording artists, in the Copyright Royalty Board’s Web IV proceedings to set statutory royalty rates for non-interactive music streaming.

Ms. Bryant also maintains an active pro bono practice and serves as the co-chair of the firm’s LGBTQ Initiative. In 2019, Ms. Bryant completed a fellowship with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, where she prosecuted multiple misdemeanor jury trials to verdict. Outside the firm, Ms. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Bet Tzedek Legal Services.

Prior to joining Munger Tolles, Ms. Bryant served as a law clerk for Chief Judge George H. King of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Before entering law school, Ms. Bryant was an adjunct writing instructor at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, and wrote for Flagpole Magazine in Athens, Georgia.

Ms. Bryant received her law degree from the USC Gould School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as senior editor of the Southern California Law Review. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in English, magna cum laude, and earned her master’s in English at Indiana University.