Bruce R. MacLeod

For more than 35 years, Mr. MacLeod has handled a wide variety of complex litigation in diverse subject areas such as securities, minority shareholders rights, antitrust, unfair competition, medical staff privileges, construction, breach of contract, employment discrimination, ERISA, franchise disputes, and personal injury.

Since joining HBD as a partner at its inception in 1995, Mr. MacLeod has focused primarily on securities litigation on behalf of buy-side clients including defrauded municipal, life insurance, mutual fund, and hedge fund investors. Mr. MacLeod is frequently involved in the initial investigation, conceptualization and drafting of such cases, which have included cases on behalf of:

• Orange County against Merrill Lynch and various government-sponsored entities (Fannie Mae, Sallie Mae, and the Federal Home Loan Banks);
• Two hedge funds against Gleacher NatWest relating to investments in the notes of a failed steel plant in Thailand;
• Four life insurers and a distressed debt hedge fund against Wall Street investment banks relating to investments in securities issued by Enron and Enron-related special purpose vehicles;
• Diverse investors (such as a Taft-Hartley pension fund, a non-profit hospital, and individuals) against investment advisors/brokers for churning and other forms of portfolio mismanagement; and
• Five life insurers against Bank of America relating to private placements of debt sponsored and guaranteed by Parmalat S.p.A.

All but the last of these securities cases settled on terms that were quite favorable to HBD’s clients, resulting in total recoveries well in excess of $1 billion. The last cases are still pending.

In addition, Mr. MacLeod has served as trial or co-trial counsel in a number of notable cases including the following:

• Robert Johnson M.D. v. State of California Department of Corrections—trial of an age discrimination case on behalf of an 80-year-old chief medical officer of a California prison. The one-month trial resulted in a $20 million verdict, which is believed to be the largest age discrimination verdict and emotional distress verdict in history on behalf of a single individual, and also the oldest plaintiff to obtain a verdict for age discrimination. In response to post-trial motions, the trial judge reduced the verdict as being excessive to a total award, including court-awarded attorneys’ fees, of $6.4 million.
• Pacific Sun Publishing Company v. San Francisco Newspaper Printing Company, Inc.—antitrust trial defending the Hearst Corporation, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Newspaper Printing Company in the first case tried under the Newspaper Preservation Act. The three-month trial resulted in a defense verdict.
• Butler v. Galli Homes, Inc.—trial of a construction defect case on behalf of an architecture firm involving water infiltration throughout a residential development. The three-month trial resulted in a directed verdict for Mr. MacLeod’s client at the close of plaintiffs’ case.
• Robert Mondavi v. C. Mondavi & Sons—three-month trial of minority shareholder case on behalf of Robert Mondavi resulting in the court-ordered involuntarily dissolution of the Charles Krug Winery for persistent fraud, mismanagement, and abuse of authority by the majority shareholders (at the time the largest court-ordered involuntary dissolution in history). Mr. MacLeod’s role in the case was chronicled in Julia Flynn’s 2007 book, The House of Mondavi.

Prior to joining HBD, Mr. MacLeod spent 6 years as an associate and 16 years as a partner at the San Francisco law firm of Farella, Braun & Martel.