Litigation

Practice Areas

Clients turn to Munger, Tolles & Olson when the stakes are high. From bet-the-company patent litigation to liberating victims of human trafficking, for more than 40 years our clients have trusted MTO to handle their most significant cases.

Exceptional judgment is the key to MTO’s extraordinarily broad trial practice. We know that keeping clients out of the courtroom can often be the best strategy and we seek to avoid litigation through negotiation, mediation, or other alternative means. But when the time comes to take a case to trial, MTO’s judgment and experience are invaluable. In fact, The American Lawyer magazine has referred to the firm as a “deep bench of trial-seasoned lawyers.”

It’s why Universal Music group tapped MTO to hold Napster funders secondarily liable for mass copyright infringement and defend it from YouTube’s DMCA claims; why a major aerospace manufacturer hired MTO to defend a $5 billion commercial contract; why a chief utility used MTO to challenge the restructuring of California’s electric industry; and why Rambus hired MTO for a behemoth patent battle with the world’s largest semiconductor firms. It’s also why our peer law firms hire MTO to defend against alleged malpractice; why high-powered executives use the firm to defend against options backdating allegations; and why a major telecommunications provider tapped the firm to defend multidistrict litigation alleging that it assisted the N.S.A. in counter-terrorism intelligence gathering.

Our national trial practice is complemented by extensive experience representing clients before federal and state agencies and in other non-judicial forums. We also regularly conduct investigations into alleged wrongdoing by corporate executives, including everything from purported stock options backdating to anonymous Internet postings.

Spotlight

Roman/Greek antiquity
Preserving the Past

MTO was retained by the J. Paul Getty Trust, one of Los Angeles’ most prized cultural institutions, to review the Getty Museum’s antiquities collection and acquisition practices.  At the time, both the Italian and Greek governments claimed that objects in the Getty’s collection had been removed from their homelands in violation of cultural patrimony laws.  Following its in-depth review, MTO aided the Getty in negotiating with the Italian and Greek governments to return some of the requested objects, while also reaching wide-ranging agreements with Italy and Greece for continued cultural exchanges with the Getty.