Partner, San Diego
750 B Street
Suite 3300, Symphony Towers
San Diego, CA 92101-8105

TEL: 619.595.5408
FAX: 619.595.5450
EMAIL: rbrewer@mckennalong.com

PROFILE

Robert Brewer has served as Office Managing Partner of the San Diego office since it opened in 1991. He has also served on the Firm’s five-member Management Committee. Robert has successfully represented officers, directors and employees in both complex civil litigation cases and as a white collar criminal defense attorney. A Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1999, he has been named in The Best Lawyers in America continuously since 1998. Robert was recognized by Who's Who Legal as a top California Business Crime attorney in its 2007 list.  He is also ranked by Chambers USA 2008 as one of the leading White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations lawyers in California.

A former Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles, CA (for two years), Robert also served as an Assistant United States Attorney (for four and a half years) and was an Assistant Chief of the Criminal Division of the Los Angeles, United States Attorney’s office. He was featured on 60 Minutes for his successful 1981 prosecution of Marion Zacharski, a Polish businessman, in the first espionage case against a non-Soviet spy since the end of World War II. Four years later, after extensive negotiations by the U.S. State Department, Mr. Zacharski was traded for 25 individuals in Soviet jails who were alleged to be pro-Western spies. As a federal prosecutor, Robert also handled numerous types of cases including: bank robberies, distribution of narcotics, a murder for hire, civil rights violations and an aircraft hijacking case.  He received a Special Commendation Award from the Attorney General for his service as an AUSA.

Robert has personally litigated wage and hour class action employment litigation in New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida.  These cases have involved extensive motion work, class certification issues, damage evaluations and hundreds of depositions.  He is lead counsel in the nationwide FLSA case Perez v. RadioShack, which involves more than 3,500 class members and has been vigorously litigated for over three years.

His private practice career as a litigator in San Diego has involved more than 90 jury trials, including: defense of wage and hour/employment class actions, fraud (civil and criminal), professional negligence, business and commercial torts and contracts, securities and shareholder derivative suits, health care fraud, qui tam actions, contract and intellectual property disputes. In 1989, he was co-counsel for the ex-Mayor of Del Mar, CA, Nancy Hoover in a nine-month federal securities fraud trial, the longest federal criminal trial in San Diego history. His experience has resulted in his being hired on several occasions to represent San Diego Superior Court judges who have been the focus of alleged improprieties.

In 2005 Robert was lead counsel representing RadioShack Corp. in a class action jury trial in Federal Court in Philadelphia, PA, involving an FLSA claim for overtime by a state-wide class of 533 plaintiff store managers. Following a two and a half week trial, a 10-person jury unanimously returned a verdict for RadioShack.

MILITARY EXPERIENCE