Litigation

In courtrooms and boardrooms, we have helped clients across a broad range of industries solve their thorniest issues. Our representations include:

• Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., and its subsidiaries in securing a historic settlement resolving litigation related to the devastating 2023 Maui wildfires. The settlements cover the fires in Lahaina, Kula and Olinda and are on a global basis without any admission of liability.  
• Susman Godfrey LLP in its challenge to the Executive Order issued by the Trump administration that limits its attorneys access to government buildings and revokes their security clearances. A federal judge in Washington, D.C. granted MTO and Susman Godfrey’s request for a temporary restraining order, finding that the Executive Order issued against Susman likely violates the First and Fifth Amendments.   
• Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks in litigation against the U.S. Agency for Global Media, challenging the agency’s termination of those entities’ grants and the agency’s impoundment of their congressionally appropriated funds pursuant to an executive order. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia largely lifted the stay, ensuring continued funding during ongoing litigation. 
• The City of Los Angeles in achieving a favorable settlement to a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging that for more than 15 years, the city had been falsely certifying to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that affordable housing built with agency grant money complied with federal disability accessibility requirements. Through aggressive discovery practice, MTO demonstrated the government knew about the alleged non-compliance but continued to approve grants to the city. MTO negotiated a settlement for just over $39 million, far less than the more than $2 billion in damages and penalties the government sought.  
• The California State University system as lead counsel in nationally watched litigation related to an alleged transgender student-athlete on the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team. MTO defeated an emergency preliminary injunction motion that sought to upend national rules allowing transgender student-athletes to play. 
• Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) as lead counsel in civil and criminal litigation arising from numerous wildfires, including the 2021 Dixie Fire, the 2019 Kincade Fire, the 2018 Camp Fire and the 2017 Tubbs Fire. In these, we have negotiated historic outcomes with local district attorneys that resulted in the dismissal of all criminal charges and comprehensive civil settlements. The plea agreement we reached in the Camp Fire litigation was instrumental in helping PG&E emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.    
• Edison International and Southern California Edison in joining a matter after trial to negotiate a confidential and favorable settlement for a fraction of a jury’s unprecedented $464.5 million award in a two-plaintiff labor and employment case. The verdict had included $440 million in punitive damages, which was believed to be the largest verdict of its kind in the history of California.   
• Activision Blizzard as lead trial counsel in a complex class action involving parallel state and federal proceedings alleging sex discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation against women at the company.  MTO’s aggressive, multi-front litigation strategy persuaded the California Civil Rights Department to settle for less than 5% of its initial offer (half of what a comparable firm paid to settle a similar matter), to drop all pattern-and-practice claims of sexual harassment, to agree that its allegations had never been substantiated by a judge or jury, and to limit the period for individual claims.  
• The Los Angeles Clippers in favorably settling litigation brought by Madison Square Garden, which opposed the development of the team’s new arena in Inglewood, California. Under the settlement, the Clippers’ ownership acquired the Forum from Madison Square Garden, which dropped all opposition to the arena, enabling it to open in time for the 2024 basketball season.
• Anthony Bruce and the heirs of Charles and Willa Bruce in recovering property that the family lost nearly 100 years earlier in a racially motivated eminent domain action by the City of Manhattan Beach to condemn a beachfront resort that catered to Black guests. MTO represented the Bruce family through the passage of California Senate Bill 796, which paved the way for Los Angeles County to return the property, and defeated a legal challenge to the transfer. 
• MGM Resorts International in settling litigation arising from the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, in which 58 individuals were killed and hundreds more were wounded. In 2019, MGM announced a $751 million settlement agreement resolving substantially all plaintiffs’ lawsuits without an admission of wrongdoing. The vast majority of the settlement will be paid by MGM’s insurance carriers.