Brian Klein

Brian Klein is an accomplished trial attorney who has successfully litigated in federal and state court. His practice focuses on high-stakes criminal and regulatory defense matters and civil litigation, and he aggressively and effectively advocates for his clients in a wide variety of state and federal forums. He is a former federal prosecutor with extensive trial experience, and he is known for his superior courtroom skills. He teaches a criminal practice seminar at the USC Gould School of Law.

Klein often represents successful entrepreneurs and professionals, iconoclastic companies, celebrities, and high-profile start-ups and fast growing businesses in connection with the most important legal issues facing them whether civil, regulatory, or criminal. As an example, he presently represents Marcus Hutchins, who is worldwide hero due to his assistance stopping the “WannaCry” ransomware attack in May 2017, in a prosecution based out of the Eastern District of Wisconsin for cyber-related crimes dating back to 2014-15. As another example, he currently represents Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, as well as their company, in connection with securities class action lawsuits involving the Tezos crowdfunding, which raised over $230 million. He also successfully defended Cesar Millan (the “Dog Whisperer”) when the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Control and District Attorney’s Office investigated allegations of animal abuse tied to one of Mr. Millan’s television shows. The authorities ultimately concluded Mr. Millan did nothing wrong and did not bring any charges. Based on his accomplishments, Klein has been repeatedly recognized as a “Super Lawyer” (including for 2018 as a Top 100 lawyer overall in Southern California) and he is frequently sought ought by the media to comment on pressing legal issues.

He has extensive experience with cutting-edge technology cases, including representing entrepreneurs, start-ups, and early adopters in all types of criminal and regulatory defense matters and civil litigation (including bankruptcy proceedings). He founded and chairs the board of directors of the non-profit Digital Currency and Ledger Defense Coalition and chairs the American Bar Association’s blockchain technology, digital currency, and ICO national institute, which will be held in New York City this year. He serves as an advisor to BlockSeer, a blockchain analytics company, and formerly volunteered as the outside general counsel and chair of the legal advocacy committee for the Bitcoin Foundation. He speaks about Fintech around the world at, among other places, global law firms, major payments and technology companies, and industry conferences. Chambers recently recognized as Klein as “the leading cryptocurrency trial attorney in the USA.”

Klein is admitted to practice in the states of California, Washington, and New York and before numerous federal courts around the country (including the Central and Northern Districts of California and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York). He graduated from New York University School of Law and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington.
  

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

The New Republic
February 20, 2019
Re: Sam Erman

The New Republic published a review of Sam Erman's book entitled "Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire. According to the reviewer, "The book is deeply researched and densely footnoted, but Erman’s writing is also lively and lucid, and he has an eye for catchy stories and compelling characters." The review goes on to suggest that aside from its compelling narrative, the book "has recovered a crucial history of the struggle over democracy, rights, race, and gender in America, a set of conflicts we have not left behind."

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Jonathan Barnett
December, 2018

Jonathan Barnett co-authored a letter to the Federal Trade Commission in response to a request for public comments following Hearings #4 on Innovation and Intellectual Property Policy. 

Dorothy S. Lund
December, 2018

"Nonvoting Shares and Efficient Corporate Governance," Ackerman Conference on Differential Voting Shares, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Orin Kerr
December, 2018

"Implementing Carpenter" posted to SSRN.