Robert C. O'Brien
Partner

Phone: Fax: E-mail:   213-629-7400 213-629-7401 Click Here

Robert C. O'Brien is the firm's Managing Partner. His practice focuses on the areas of commercial litigation and arbitration, including intellectual property, entertainment and franchise matters. Mr. O'Brien has successfully defended, in motion practice and through jury trial, clients in breach of implied contract, right of publicity, copyright and employment cases. He has also obtained preliminary injunctions and significant settlements in high-profile infringement cases on behalf of intellectual property rights holders.

Mr. O'Brien has represented both domestic and foreign-based companies in complex transnational litigation and arbitration cases involving construction and oil and gas matters, among other areas. He has served as counsel and arbitrator in domestic and international arbitration and foreign claims proceedings. Mr. O'Brien is on the panel of neutrals for the International Center for Dispute Resolution/American Arbitration Association, as well as several other international panels. He has significant private practice and government experience in international legal matters.

President George W. Bush nominated and the United States Senate confirmed Mr. O'Brien to serve as the United States Alternate Representative to the 60th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which met in New York from September 3 to December 23, 2005. In addition to his other duties as a U.S. Delegate, Mr. O'Brien addressed the General Assembly on the Question of Palestine and represented the United States in the General Assembly's Sixth Committee, which considered the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a legal officer with the United Nations Security Council (Compensation Commission) in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. O'Brien served as a Major in the JAG Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve (1992 to 2005). On May 11, 2006, he received the Cardinal Newman High School Alumni Scholarship/Leadership Award for Public Service.

In April 2004, the Daily Journal named Mr. O'Brien one of the top twenty lawyers in California under the age of forty. He was named a Rising Star by Los Angeles Magazine and Southern California Law and Politics Magazine for 2004, 2005 and 2006. Mr. O'Brien is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Form. His articles on international law and civil procedure have been published in the American Journal of International Law, the Cornell Journal of International Law and the Los Angeles Lawyer, among other journals.

Areas of Practice:
    Business Litigation
    Intellectual Property
    International Law
    Franchise Law

Bar Admissions:
    California
    U.S. Supreme Court
    Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
    U.S. District Court for the Northern,
        Eastern, Central and Southern Districts
        of California
    Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

Education:
    Juris Doctorate
    University of California, Berkeley
         Boalt Hall School of Law

    Bachelor of Arts, cum laude
    University of California, Los Angeles

Affiliations:
    The Institute for Transnational Arbitration,
        Member, Advisory Board (2006-present)       
    Euro-American Lawyers Group (Legal Network),
        Member, Management Committee (2006-present)
   J. Rueben Clark Law Society,
        Chair, Los Angeles Chapter (2003-2005)
    International Law Section of the State Bar of California,
        Member, Executive Committee (1999-2002)
    American Society of International Law
    Los Angeles County Bar Association
    Million Dollar Advocates Forum

Articles:
Preparing a Witness for a Deposition,
    Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine, Attorney Survivial Guide for
    New Attorneys in California (Fall 2006)
The Commercial Value Of Rights Of Publicity: A Picture Is Sometimes Worth A Million Dollars,
    ABA Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, (Spring 2005)
    (co-authored with Bela Lugosi)
Your Witness Counselor,
    ABA Student Lawyer, Vol. 32, No. 9 (May 2004)
Trying Circumstances,
    Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 6 (September 2002)
Trademarks and Internet Domain Names in the Digital Millennium,
    4 UCLA Journal of International Law & Foreign Affairs
    377 (2000) (co-authored with Michael LiRocchi
    and Steven Kepler)
Reflections on Compelling Nonparty Discovery in England,
    The California International Practitioner, Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 13
     (Fall 1999)
The Challenge of Verifying Corporate and Government Claims at the United Nations Compensation Commission,
     31 Cornell International Law Journal 101 (1998)
A UNCC Panel of Commissioners Sets Precedents in Government Claims,
     92 American Journal of International Law
     339 (1998) (co-authored with Veijo Heiskanen)
Compelling the Production of Evidence by Non-Parties in England And Wales Under the Hague Convention,
      24 Syracuse Journal of International Law & Commerce,
      77 (1997)
The UNCC and Iraq’s Liability for Corporate Claims,
      California International Law Section Newsletter,
      Vol. 8, No. 4, p. 15 (Winter 1995/96)

Published Decisions:
   Good Dog! Inc. v. Envision Group,
       eRes Case No. AF-0862
    Altrio Communications, Inc. v. Bernardo Rodriquez,
       eRes Case No. AF-07778

  Languages:
    Afrikaans