Bradley J. Hamburger is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  His practice focuses on class actions and complex litigation in both trial courts and on appeal.  He is a member of the firm’s Class Actions, Appellate and Constitutional Law, and Labor and Employment practice groups.

Mr. Hamburger has represented clients in class actions and appeals across many areas of law, including employment, insurance, antitrust, consumer fraud, products liability, legal malpractice, and administrative law. He has briefed dozens of appeals, including cases in the United States Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit, and the California Supreme Court, and has argued before the Ninth Circuit and the California Court of Appeal.

Mr. Hamburger has significant expertise in seeking interlocutory appellate review of class certification orders under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f), obtaining enforcement of arbitration agreements, and defending clients against representative actions under California’s Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act. Mr. Hamburger also regularly represents technology companies, and he has substantial experience litigating the application of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

In 2022, Law360 recognized Mr. Hamburger as a Rising Star in the Class Action category, and BTI Consulting Group included him on its Client Service All-Stars list. The Daily Journal named Mr. Hamburger as one of the top 40 lawyers in California under 40 in 2021. Mr. Hamburger also was part of the team that obtained one of the Daily Journal’s Top Appellate Reversals of 2021, Magadia v. Wal-Mart Associates, Inc., 999 F.3d 668 (9th Cir. 2021).

Recent Representative Matters Include:

• Obtained significant victory from the United States Supreme Court in action seeking over $20 billion in damages. Comcast Corp. v. Nat’l Ass’n of Afr. Am.-Owned Media, 140 S. Ct. 1009 (2020).
• Secured affirmance from the Ninth Circuit of the denial of class certification in an insurance class action. Lara v. First Nat’l Ins. Co. of Am., 25 F.4th 1134 (9th Cir. 2022).
• Defeated motion for class certification and then a complete victory at trial in an employment misclassification action. Ortiz v. Amazon.com LLC, 2022 WL 1598968 (N.D. Cal. 2022).
• Successfully argued opposition to class certification motion in an employment class action. Mabanta v. Prime Now LLC, 2022 WL 1601415 (N.D. Cal. 2022).
• Secured a new trial in a dispute with a former motor vehicle franchisee after a jury had awarded $256 million in damages, and affirmance of that ruling from the California Court of Appeal. Nissan Motor Acceptance Cases, 63 Cal. App. 5th 793 (2021).
• Obtained review from the Fourth Circuit of an order granting class certification in an antitrust class action, and then vacatur of the order. In re Zetia (Ezetimibe) Antitrust Litig., 7 F.4th 227 (4th Cir. 2021).
• Secured affirmance from the California Court of Appeal of dismissal of claims under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Does #1-50 v. Salesforce.com, Inc., 2021 WL 6143093 (Cal. Ct. App. 2021).
• Obtained review from the Ninth Circuit of an order granting class certification in an employment class action, and then reversal of the order. Mays v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 804 F. App’x 641 (9th Cir. 2020).
• Secured affirmance from the California Court of Appeal of a summary judgment ruling in a complex business dispute. Monster, LLC v. Beats Elecs., LLC, 2020 WL 5014610 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020).

Mr. Hamburger was a key member of both the trial and appeal teams in Chevron’s successful RICO action against a U.S. lawyer who was found to have fraudulently procured a multi-billion-dollar judgment against Chevron from an Ecuadorian court. After a seven-week bench trial in the Southern District of New York, the trial judge issued a 485-page decision in Chevron’s favor, the Second Circuit affirmed in full, and the Supreme Court denied certiorari. Chevron Corp. v. Donziger, 974 F. Supp. 2d 362 (S.D.N.Y. 2014), aff’d, 833 F.3d 74 (2d Cir. 2016), cert. denied, 137 S. Ct. 2268 (2017).

Mr. Hamburger’s publications include Article III Standing and Absent Class Members, 64 Emory L.J. 383 (2015) (with Theane Evangelis), and Three Myths About Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 82 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. Arguendo 45 (2014) (with Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr.). He also co-authored two chapters in the Third Edition of the American Bar Association’s A Practitioner’s Guide to Class Actions (2021), including the chapter on interlocutory appeals. He also routinely speaks at conferences on class actions and employment law.

Mr. Hamburger graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2009. While at Harvard he served as co-Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology and was a member of the Board of Student Advisers. He graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Hamburger served as a law clerk to the Honorable James V. Selna in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Mr. Hamburger is a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Los Angeles County Law Library. Before entering law school, Mr. Hamburger taught middle school mathematics in New York City as a Teach for America corps member.