Biography
Brian serves as the lead day-to-day and key strategic member of Weil litigation teams, helping clients shape overall dispute resolution strategy to reach business-oriented resolutions, overseeing all aspects of litigation and trial, and managing case teams. He has worked on a range of disputes that have involved leading business, cultural, and societal issues: industry-wide price fixing allegations; environmental remediation; PFAS “forever chemicals”; and major alleged product defects. Brian has litigated these and other cases in courts around the country, collectively worth billions of dollars in potential exposure, on behalf of global companies including Burger King, PepsiCo, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Repsol.
Brian also has an active portfolio of high-profile pro bono matters, which documents his ardent advocacy on behalf of those most in need, including incarcerated individuals fighting against unjust prosecution, and for accessibility rights and expungement, so that they can chart new paths forward in life. Brian’s achievements have been recognized by the Eleventh Circuit, which has twice appointed him as pro bono counsel for indigent claimants (and which, in each case, resolved successfully in Brian’s clients’ favor).
Notable Corporate Litigation Experience
Brian’s recent representative experience on behalf of corporate litigants demonstrates his breadth of expertise and key roles in securing victories for clients.
Antitrust
- Successfully representing Pilgrim’s Pride in one of the largest antitrust cases in the country, regarding broiler chickens, as well as serving as coordinator for the entire joint defense group of 20 defendants, which resulted in the judge granting summary judgment significantly limiting the remaining damages and excluding theories of liability.
- Serving as counsel for Michael Foods in a $10B multi-district litigation regarding shell eggs and other egg products, which included preparing for trial in the N.D. Ill against major food manufacturers and ultimately obtaining a very favorable eve-of-trial settlement.
- Securing dismissal of Sherman Act antitrust per se claims for a major technology company in a high-profile matter regarding a global business agreement with another technology industry company.
Environmental, Product Liability, and Consumer Protection
- Successfully representing Repsol, S.A. in a series of multi-billion-dollar complex environmental and business litigations that included obtaining a victory involving claims of “alter ego” and fraudulent conveyance, succeeding on Repsol’s $65 million counterclaim in New Jersey, securing a significant summary judgment ruling on alter ego damages in a related bankruptcy litigation in Delaware, and positioning the case for a very favorable settlement in a dispute with potentially double-digit billion-dollar exposure.
- Obtaining dismissals on behalf of Burger King in two consumer class actions in California and Florida alleging failure to disclose the use of an allegedly dangerous “forever chemical” in food packaging.
- Representing Dometic, a major manufacturer of gas absorption refrigerators, in securing summary judgment and defeating class certification, as well as transfer and consolidation victories prior to those case dispositive rulings, in numerous putative nationwide consumer class actions in Florida and California federal courts alleging that the cooling units in several models of Dometic’s refrigerators purportedly contained a latent defect. These victories led to a pay-nothing settlement after several years of litigation.
Appellate Advocacy
- Representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other amici in preparing amicus briefs in support of the appellant in a high-profile U.S. Supreme Court ADA case, Acheson v. Laufer, that is at the cutting-edge of corporate defendants’ efforts to combat litigation abuse. Brian also authored a research report with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform focusing on litigation abuse under the ADA.
- As a member of the Firm’s Appeals and Strategic Counseling practice, Brian has represented clients in the United States Supreme Court, United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Eleventh, D.C., and Federal Circuits, the Colorado Supreme Court, and Florida appellate courts.
Notable Pro Bono Experience
Brian also is an active participant in the Firm’s pro bono initiatives. Brian has twice been appointed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to represent indigent individuals on appeal, successfully overturning the denial of social security benefits. Brian also has worked with the Innocence Project, seeking to obtain post-conviction relief for a client based on new scientific evidence (which resulted in the grant of a new trial), as part of a team of Weil attorneys representing deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals as plaintiffs seeking accessibility accommodations in Georgia prisons (which will now proceed to trial after the court granted class certification), and earlier, as part of a team of Weil attorneys which represented a victim of human trafficking, successfully allowing the client to have her criminal record expunged and vacated.
In 2024, Brian was named as one of Daily Business Review’s “On the Rise” honorees, which recognizes top Florida lawyers under 40. He also has been listed in the 2020-2024 editions of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for commercial litigation and appellate, and selected as a member of the Florida Board of Bar Examiner’s Practice Analysis Panel, which from 2020-2021 evaluated the knowledge, skills, and abilities that all newly licensed Florida lawyers should have to be admitted to the bar. Brian’s work led to the publication of a study in 2022 based on responses from 21,000 Florida Bar members, and will be reviewed in conjunction with the Florida Board of Bar Examiners’ consideration of changes to the Florida Bar exam. Additionally, Brian has been appointed to serve on the Florida Bar Eleventh Circuit Grievance Committee, for a three-year term commencing January 1, 2024.
Brian is also frequently published on legal topics, including relating to Article III standing, class certification, arbitration, and personal jurisdiction. Additionally, Brian contributes to the Firm’s annual Litigation Trends report.
From September 2017 through September 2018, Brian served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Adalberto Jordan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.