Partner
Austin / Orange County

Brian Dunne is a trial lawyer specializing in complex, cutting-edge cases on behalf of plaintiffs. Brian currently represents individuals, companies, and nationwide classes in a number of large and high-profile matters. Since co-founding Bathaee Dunne, Brian has been co-lead counsel in several certified or putative class actions, including Earl v. Boeing, No. 4:19-cv-507 (E.D. Tex.) (federal RICO—four certified nationwide classes); Crowder v. LinkedIn, No. 4:22-cv-237 (N.D. Cal.) (federal antitrust); Corrente v. Charles Schwab, No. 4:22-cv-470 (E.D. Tex.) (federal antitrust); Pietosi v. HP, No. 3:22-cv-4273 (N.D. Cal.) (fraud, breach of warranty, and UCL); Day v. Advanced Micro Devices, No. 5:22-cv-4305 (N.D. Cal.) (negligence and breach of warranty); Stewart v. Acer, No. 5:22-cv-4684 (N.D. Cal.) (fraud and breach of warranty); Styleform IT v. Facebook, No. CGC-18-571075 (Cal. Super., S.F. County) (federal RICO), and Harper v. Sievert, et al., No. 2022-0819 (Del. Ch.) (shareholder derivative). Additionally, Brian currently represents a putative class of Facebook advertisers in the consolidated Klein v. Meta Platforms antitrust litigation in the Northern District of California (No. 3:20-cv-8570), where Yavar Bathaee has been appointed interim co-lead counsel.

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Brian has represented putative and certified classes in state and federal courts throughout the United States, asserting a wide range of legal claims. Brian has litigated class actions involving, among other statutes, the Sherman and Clayton Acts, RICO, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, the California Unfair Competition Law, and the California CARD Act.

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Before co-founding Bathaee Dunne, Brian was co-founder of a litigation boutique that recouped tens of millions of dollars for clients, and appeared on Law360’s Top 5 list of plaintiff-side patent firms for the years 2015 and 2016. Brian has been lead or co-lead counsel in more than five dozen patent cases over the course of a decade, and has unique expertise in maximizing the value of multi-patent portfolios by developing and executing nationwide litigation and licensing strategies.

Early in his career, Brian was as an associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, where he worked on the so-called smartphone patent wars, litigating (including successfully at trial) against Apple in multiple United States District Courts and in the International Trade Commission. Additionally, Mr. Dunne was lead associate in the Yahoo! v. Facebook patent case in the Northern District of California, and represented both plaintiffs and defendants in copyright, trade secret, and RMBS litigation.

Throughout his career, Brian has been praised for his ability to distill complicated, cutting-edge concepts into clear, accessible arguments. Brian has briefed and/or argued cases in California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Washington, Indiana, Delaware, Virginia, Missouri, and the District of Columbia; in the International Trade Commission; and in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Ninth, and Federal Circuits.

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Before entering private practice, Brian clerked for the Hon. Jay S. Bybee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Hon. Susan Phillips Read of the New York State Court of Appeals.

Brian graduated in the top five percent of his class, Order of the Coif, from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a member of the University of Chicago Law Review; won the Joseph Henry Beale Prize for excellence in legal writing; received a John M. Olin Fellowship in Law, Economics, and Policy; and wrote published articles on federal court standing and the competitive effects of API copyrightability.

Mr. Dunne has a physics degree from Stanford University, where he was a staff writer for The Stanford Daily, was awarded a undergraduate Summer research grant in astrophysics, and played hooker for the Stanford Rugby team, including the 2002 Division II National Championship squad.