Author: Kristy Werness

Wrongfully Convicted Grandmother Released from Prison

Brian Hennigan led the Hueston Hennigan LLP team at the two-week hearing, delivering the opening statement at the hearing and examining witnesses in the courtroom while negotiating with the L.A. District Attorney’s Office for the immediate release of his client, Maria Mendez.

Prior to her release, Ms. Mendez, 64, had served 11 years of a 25-years-to-life sentence. During a post-conviction evidentiary hearing in the Los Angeles Superior Court, Hueston Hennigan demonstrated that Ms. Mendez’s conviction relied upon false expert testimony and suppressed evidence. Emphasizing the significance of newly acquired CT-scans and autopsy photos of the baby’s brain, the Hueston Hennigan team showed that the prosecution’s theory that the child had suffered from “Abusive Head Trauma” (formerly referred to as “Shaken Baby Syndrome”) was medically and scientifically flawed. After one week of evidence, the prosecution approached the defense team with a deal that would result in Ms. Mendez’s release from prison. Ms. Mendez accepted – and on June 27, 2018, with Ms. Mendez’s family in attendance, the court ordered Ms. Mendez’s immediate release. She is now living in Mexico with her family.

Hueston Hennigan Lawyers Featured in Best Lawyers in America 2019 US Edition

Brian Hennigan and John Hueston both received “Lawyers of the Year” recognitions for Criminal Defense: White Collar, a prestigious honor presented annually by Best Lawyers to a single outstanding lawyer in each practice and designated metropolitan area covered by the US publication, based on the highest peer ratings received.

Doug Dixon, along with Brian and John, is recognized in the category of Commercial Litigation.

To compile the list of distinguished lawyers, Best Lawyers conducts an extensive peer-review process during which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The latest edition includes 58,000 lawyers in 140 practice areas, covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and inclusion in this year’s publication is based on 7.4 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.

Hueston Hennigan Obtains U.S. Supreme Court Review In Class Action Appeal

After the district court granted Nutraceutical’s motion to decertify Plaintiff Troy Lambert’s class action suit, the Ninth Circuit reversed, in an opinion that excused Plaintiff’s failure to timely file his petition for permission to appeal within the mandatory 14-day window set forth in Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure 23(f).  In its opinion, the Ninth Circuit acknowledged that its decision to excuse Plaintiff’s failure to timely file conflicted with decisions of the other United States Circuit Courts of Appeals that have considered the issue (including the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Tenth, and Eleventh).

Nutraceutical Corp. is represented by John C. Hueston and Joe Reiter of Hueston Hennigan LLP.

The case is captioned Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert, Dkt. No. 17-1094.

 

 

Allergan Defeats CoolSculpting Class Action

Granting the motion to dismiss, U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee held that Plaintiffs had failed to show why Zeltiq’s claims would mislead consumers, and adopted Zeltiq’s argument that Ninth Circuit law did not require the company to make any additional, affirmative disclosures.

“This is an important ruling, particularly for medical device manufacturers,” said Zeltiq lead counsel.  “We are pleased that the Court adopted our arguments on the case law, and granted dismissal of this putative class action at the pleadings stage.”

Zeltiq was represented by John Hueston and Doug Dixon.

Media

Law360

 

Chambers USA 2018: Hueston Hennigan a Meteoric Success

Calling Hueston Hennigan a “highly regarded litigation boutique across both plaintiff and defense-side commercial cases,” the premier legal directory cited its bench of expert trial lawyers. With lawyers who are “incredibly responsive, quick, efficient and committed,” Hueston Hennigan is a “go-to firm for bet-the-farm litigation.”

The firm’s “powerhouse white collar criminal defense team” Chambers continued, boasts outstanding trial capabilities, “drawing from a high-quality bench of litigators which includes several former federal prosecutors.”

Name partners John Hueston and Brian Hennigan, who have both been repeatedly ranked as Band 1 attorneys, were singled out as “Notable Practioners.” Mr. Hueston, Mr. Hennigan and Partner Robert Klieger were previously named “Leaders in their Field.”

Mr. Hueston, described as a “dynamo,” is praised for his “intelligence, strategic vision and exceptional ability to see all angles and read human nature in any given situation.” And: “He is the best lawyer of his generation. He is razor sharp in every way. Whether in court, on paper or in his teams, he thinks ten steps ahead and never skips a beat.”

Mr. Hennigan is described by clients as “a real trial lawyer.” He received “considerable praise for his judgment and ability to handle extremely complex cases and achieve great results.” He widely regarded for his ability to apply his “wealth of experience” to individual and corporate representations in both litigations and investigations, achieving “great results.”

Mr. Klieger was ranked this year in the Media and Entertainment category, with Chambers noting that Mr. Klieger “is developing an impressive reputation for his handling of entertainment litigation. Sources describe him as “a really great lawyer and “beyond excellent as a writer.”

Since opening its doors in 2015, Hueston Hennigan has been ranked as a national Top 10 Boutique by Benchmark Litigation, named by Law360 as one of five top national trial boutiques, and one of California’s top boutiques by the Los Angeles Daily Journal. The firm’s clients include T-Mobile, Amazon.com, SpaceX, Tesla, Western Digital, Edison International and Southern California Edison, the Navajo Nation, Amgen, Sumner Redstone, the University of California, PricewaterhouseCoopers and many others.

London-based Chambers and Partners, is one of the World’s preeminent directories of law firms and lawyers, producing annual guides after months of objective, in-depth research.

 

Brian Hennigan Honored with CLAY Award

Mr. Hennigan was cited for his work with former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos R. Moreno in the high-profile investigation into allegations that the University of California’s Office of the President interfered with a state audit.

The UC Board of Regents hired the legal team last summer, after the state auditor publicly accused UC President Janet Napolitano’s office of revising answers on campus surveys.  Auditor Elaine M. Howle maintained that Napolitano’s office altered the answers to reflect more favorably on her performance.

Mr. Hennigan led the independent fact-finding project. The team reviewed more than 427,000 pieces of electronic data and documents, and it conducted dozens of interviews. The report ultimately found that although Napolitano knew surveys were being reviewed, there was insufficient evidence to conclude she knew about her aids’ systematic alteration of unfavorable responses.

Judge Moreno and Mr. Hennigan both said work of Michael Behrens, counsel at Hueston Hennigan, and Kasey Mitchell, an associate at the firm, as instrumental to the investigation.

IMDb Age Law Declared Unconstitutional

From Law360.com

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a California law requiring IMDb to remove an actor’s age information upon request, an effort to fight age discrimination, was “clearly unconstitutional.” Ruling that “regulation of speech must be a last resort,” U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said the state should have tried less invasive options, like beefing up existing discrimination rules, rather than “censor a source of truthful information.”  (more…)