Brian J. Dunne
Partner
Austin
Tel: +1 (213) 462-2772
Email: bdunne@bathaeedunne.com
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.
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.
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.
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.
Representative matters include:
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Co-lead counsel for certified classes of overcharged ticket purchasers in a RICO suit against Boeing and Southwest Airlines regarding their conspiracy to conceal problems with the 737 MAX 8 aircraft. (E.D. Tex.)
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Co-lead counsel for a putative class of application developers in a RICO suit against Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg regarding Facebook's third-party developer Platform. (Cal. Super. - S.F.)
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Represents a putative class of overcharged advertisers in an antitrust suit against Facebook regarding the company's monopolization of the U.S. social advertising market. (N.D. Cal.)
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Co-lead counsel in a shareholder derivative suit against T-Mobile officers and directors regarding divided loyalties and breaches of fiduciary duty in service of T-Mobile's largest shareholder Deutsche Telekom. (Del. Ch.)
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Co-lead counsel for a putative class of overcharged LinkedIn Premium subscribers in an antitrust lawsuit regarding LinkedIn's monopolization and attempted monopolization of the Professional Social Networking market. (N.D. Cal.)
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Co-lead counsel for a putative class of undercompensated Charles Schwab retail investors in an antitrust lawsuit challenging Schwab's anticompetitive merger with TD Ameritrade under Section 7 of the Clayton Act. (E.D. Tex.)
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Co-lead counsel for a putative class of application developers in an antitrust suit against Facebook regarding its effort to dominate the social data and social advertising markets. (N.D. Cal.)
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Co-lead counsel for a putative class of Capital One customers in a RICO suit against Capital One and Amazon regarding defendants' conspiracy to deceive plaintiffs about the security of sensitive financial data on AWS’s public cloud. (E.D. Va.)
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Co-lead counsel for a putative class of residents of Barrington Plaza, one of Los Angeles's largest luxury apartment complexes, regarding fire safety misrepresentations and deficiencies. (Cal Super. - L.A.)
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Co-lead counsel for jewelry retailer Alex & Ani in breach of contract and discrimination litigation against Bank of America. (S.D.N.Y)
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Lead counsel for WAC Lighting in offensive patent litigation regarding LED lighting technologies. (C.D. Cal.)
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Lead outside counsel for Intertrust Technologies Corporation in licensing of its groundbreaking, litigation-tested computer security and digital rights management patents.
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Represented a certified class of LinkedIn users in privacy litigation regarding LinkedIn's "add connections" feature. (N.D. Cal.)
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Represented a certified class of SoulCycle members regarding SoulCycle's illegal "class certificate" sales tactics. (C.D. Cal.)
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Co-lead counsel for cloud security innovator St. Luke Technologies in patent litigation and licensing. (E.D. Tex.)
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Represented Dunti Network Technologies in litigation and licensing of its network architecture patent portfolio. (E.D. Tex.)
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Represented Yahoo! in offensive and defensive patent litigation against Facebook. (N.D. Cal.)
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Represented Motorola Mobility against Apple in multiple district court and International Trade Commission actions involving dozens of offensive and defensive patent infringement claims. (I.T.C., N.D. Ill., D. Del., S.D. Fla., W.D. Wash., W.D. Wisc.)
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Represented Barnes and Noble in multiple patent matters regarding the Nook e-reader, including litigation and licensing. (W.D. Wash., N.D. Cal.)
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Represented RF Micro Devices in offensive and defensive patent litigation against Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation regarding radio frequency integrated circuit technologies. (C.D. Cal., S.D. Cal., I.T.C.)
Education
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J.D., with Honors, University of Chicago Law School
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Order of the Coif
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University of Chicago Law Review
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Joseph Henry Beale Prize in legal research and writing
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John M. Olin Student Fellowship in Law, Economics, and Policy
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Ruth Wyatt Rosenson and Law School Centennial Endowed Scholar
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B.S., Physics, Stanford University
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Undergraduate Summer Research Grant in Astrophysics
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Staff Writer, The Stanford Daily
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Stanford Rugby
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Judicial Clerkships
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Law Clerk to Hon. Jay S. Bybee, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
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Senior Law Clerk to Hon. Susan P. Read, New York Court of Appeals
Admissions
California
New York