Munger, Tolles & Olson

Munger, Tolles, & Olson LLP (MTO) is an American law firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.. The firm represents clients in industries such as entertainment, technology, energy and healthcare.

History
Munger, Tolles & Hills opened in Tishman Building at Flower Street and Wilshire Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles on February 1, 1962. It was born out of the desire of three partners at Musick, Peeler & Garrett — Charlie Munger, E. Leroy Tolles, and Roderick M. Hills — to strike out on their own. They invited two younger Musick lawyers, Dick Esbenshade and Frederick B. Warder Jr. (son of rear admiral Frederick B. Warder), and were also joined by Hills’ wife Carla Anderson Hills, then an assistant U.S. attorney. They also brought another lawyer, James T. "Jamie" Wood, a sole practitioner and friend of the Hills. In 1965, Munger left the firm to pursue investment management full time, joining Warren Buffett in a business partnership and eventually serving as vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, a client of the firm. Charles E. Rickershauser, Jr., a former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, joined the firm, boosting its corporate practice and renaming it Munger, Tolles, Hills & Rickershauser. Ronald Olson was hired in 1968 and became partner in 1970.

The firm opened an office in San Francisco in 1991. In 2016, the firm hired former Solicitor General of the United States Donald B. Verrilli Jr. to launch an office in Washington D.C.

In 2019, the firm elected Malcolm Heinicke and Hailyn Chen as co-managing partners, succeeding longtime firm leaders Brad Brian and Sandra Seville-Jones. Brad Brian was named as firm chair. At the time of her election, Chen was only the second Asian woman to assume a leadership position at a major law firm.

Legal practice
Some of the firm's notable clients have included Google, Disney, Bank of America, PG&E, BNSF Railway, Intel, Fortress and Berkshire Hathaway.

Munger, Tolles & Olson is known for its democratic approach to management. It typically hires graduates from top law schools and promotes from within, and places high value on judicial clerkships. As of 2005, 19 of the firm's attorneys had clerked for justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Recognition
Munger, Tolles & Olson ranked as the nation's top law firm on the American Lawyer A-List from 2008 to 2010. In 2022, the firm had been ranked by Vault as the number one litigation boutique for eleven consecutive years.

Litigation

 * Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) in litigation brought against the utility as a result of several California wildfires in 2017, 2018 and 2020. The firm helped broker a series of multi-million dollar settlements.
 * Transocean Deepwater Inc., a drilling company, in criminal and civil litigation arising from the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. After a months-long trial, the court found that under a drilling contract, BP bore indemnity obligations for the millions of barrels of oil discharged during the spill.
 * Vanessa Bryant in an invasion of privacy lawsuit regarding the inappropriate sharing of photos from the scene of the helicopter crash that killed her husband and daughter, Kobe and Gianna Bryant, and seven others. The jury awarded Vanessa Bryant and others $31 million. The firm also represented the Kobe Bryant Estate in the wrongful death suit against Island Express, the helicopter company that was transporting the passengers who all perished in the crash.
 * The Getty Trust after allegations of wrongdoing in the acquisition of its antiquities collection
 * Southern California Edison in the reorganization of California's energy industry
 * Merrill Lynch in the bankruptcy of Orange County
 * The Philippines against Imelda Marcos and Ferdinand Marcos
 * Defense of AFTERMATH RECORDS regarding the percentage of royalties owed for digital downloads

Transactional practice

 * Berkshire Hathaway in its acquisition of Alleghany Corp. for $11.6 billion
 * Warren Buffett in his $31 billion gift to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
 * Berkshire Hathaway in its $22 billion purchase of General Reinsurance and $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs

Pro Bono
The firm's pro bono representation includes:


 * Challenging the constitutionality of Los Angeles County's bail schedule policy and securing a preliminary injunction, halting enforcement of the bail schedule and eliminating cash bail for individuals on most low-level, non-violent offenses.
 * Challenging the conviction of C.J. Rice—a Philadelphia man who a federal court found had his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel violated before being convicted of attempted murder in 2013. The conviction was overturned.
 * Challenging San Francisco's policy of towing lawfully parked vehicles without a warrant, solely due to unpaid parking tickets. The California Court of Appeal ruled San Francisco's towing policy violated the Fourth Amendment and the California Constitution.
 * The Bruce family, which successfully intervened in a taxpayer action attempting to prevent Los Angeles County's return of the beachside property known as Bruce's Beach—a Manhattan Beach resort in Los Angeles County, California—to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce, who lost the property through a racially discriminatory condemnation action 100 years ago.
 * Families of five children and four adults killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who reached a $73 million settlement with gun manufacturer Remington's insurance carriers - Ironshore (a Liberty Mutual subsidiary), James River Insurance Co., ACE (now Chubb), and North American Capacity Insurance Co. (Swiss Re Corporate Solutions America Insurance Corp.).
 * Kenneth Walker III, boyfriend of the late Breonna Taylor, who reached a $2 million settlement with the City of Louisville to resolve lawsuits Walker filed stemming from the unlawful police raid that led to Taylor's death in 2020.

Attorneys

 * Ginger Anders, a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
 * Robert Denham, former CEO of the investment bank Salomon Brothers during the 1990s and current chairman of the MacArthur Foundation;
 * Daniel Levin, a former Deputy Chief of Criminal Appeals in the U.S. Attorney's Office.
 * Ronald Olson, a director of Berkshire Hathaway, who was named the most influential lawyer in California by California Law Business;
 * Donald B. Verrilli Jr., former U.S. Solicitor General in the Obama administration

Alumni

 * Nancy Bekavac, the first female president of Scripps College;
 * Alan Bersin, President Barack Obama's "Border Czar" and former United States Attorney for the Southern District of California;
 * Jeffrey L. Bleich, former Special Counsel to President Barack Obama and United States Ambassador to Australia
 * Daniel A. Bress, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
 * Daniel J. Calabretta, Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
 * Daniel P. Collins, Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
 * E. Martin Estrada, United States Attorney for the Central District of California.
 * John Frank, Vice Chairman of Oaktree.
 * Michelle Friedland, Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
 * Joshua P. Groban, Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court.
 * Carla Anderson Hills, former U.S. Trade Representative and former Secretary of Health and Human Services;
 * Roderick Hills, former White House Counsel and Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
 * Diane M. Johnsen, Judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One.
 * Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
 * Leondra Kruger, Justice of the California Supreme Court
 * Carolyn Kuhl, judge on the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles and former Deputy Solicitor General at the Department of Justice;
 * Ted Lieu, Congressman representing the 36th District of California.
 * Felicia Marcus, Chairman of California State Water Resources Control Board
 * Vilma Socorro Martínez, United States Ambassador to Argentina and past president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF);
 * Charles Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
 * Sarala Nagala, former Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
 * John B. Owens, Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
 * Gabriel P. Sanchez, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
 * Usha Vance, wife of vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance
 * Paul J. Watford, Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit