Member Profiles

Mr. Kaplan is widely recognized as a leading antitrust litigator and has led the prosecution of numerous antitrust class actions, which have resulted in billions in settlements for class members. He has been a lead counsel or member of the Executive Committee in dozens of antitrust cases (some of which are listed hereafter) since he left the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Kaplan was a lead counsel in In re Air Caro Antitrust Litigation ($1.25 billion in settlements). In re Flat Glass Antitrust Litigation, he successfully argued the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which issued a ground breaking and often-cited summary judgment opinion. In 2015, The Legal 500 named Mr. Kaplan as one of the leading antitrust attorneys in the country.

Mary Joyce is recognized for her representation of clients under OECD guidelines and coordination of investor prosecution of cases under European Competition Law. In that capacity, Ms. Carlson supervised the workload of lawyers litigating French, Italian & German antitrust complaints coming before the European Commission. Her international work has included collaboration with the European Public Service Union and the European Federation of Food, Agriculture & Tourism Trade Unions. She has also represented clients before the Brazilian Labor Prosecution Service (Ministério Público do Trabalho), and holds an International Global Legal (IGL) designation. Ms. Carlson’s career has featured critical wins in Labor & Employment Law, and she has gained an international reputation for creating new lines of inquiry and innovative legal theories that result in successful litigation, particularly in regards to coordinating complex EU anti-competition matters. Ms. Carlson has built an impressive portfolio of clients and professional contacts that include large nonprofit organizations, NGOs, academic institutions, advocacy groups, professional associations, and national labor unions, including SEIU, CWA, and UAW. In addition, Mary Joyce provides due diligence and client consultation on responsible investments and union-side investment funds, including shareholder litigation. As counsel for The Fight for Fifteen, Mary Joyce Carlson played a key role in elevating more than 22 million workers to win $62 million in raises, a successful legal battle that MSNBC’s Chris Hayes stated, “…has completely changed the politics of the country.” Mary Joyce served as Distinguished Scholar & Speaker at Cornell University, conducted faculty-student lectures, spoke at many ABA International Law meetings, and has been quoted in Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and more. Throughout her career, Ms. Carlson has served on select panels, including the ABA “Future of Worklife, Post Pandemic” panel. She recently served as guest commentator at the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law’s 36th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, featuring Jared Bernstein, former chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden. For the Harvard Law School Clean Slate Project Working Group, she played an active role in drafting solution sets and proposals for a variety of constituencies and communities. A native of rural Tennessee, Mary Joyce participated in student Civil Rights protests while earning her undergraduate degree. She later earned a Juris Doctor degree from Duke University School of Law, where she prepared for her career in Civil Rights and Economic Justice. After practicing law in Georgia and Maryland, Ms. Carlson continued her career in Washington, DC, where she successfully challenged the longstanding discriminatory gender and racial composition of juries, helped lift a cap on the wages of nurses, brought winning antitrust lawsuits against hospital networks for colluding to depress nursing salaries, and played a critical role in reforming racially biased policies on nursing assignments to hospital specialty units. Mary Joyce was subsequently appointed by President Clinton to the position of Deputy General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board. Ms. Carlson recently won the prestigious Sidney Hillman Foundation George “Citizen” Barrett Award for Public Interest Law. She is a lifelong believer in positive change to foster meaningful progress in Civil Rights, Economic Justice, and Gender Equality. Mary Joyce’s compassionate engagement style, visionary legal acumen, strong international business expertise, and proven capacity to advance her clients’ interests, have all combined to position her as a trusted advocate for her growing client portfolio.

Mr. Brennan, founding partner of Laurie & Brennan, LLP, concentrates his practice on advising owners, designers and contractors on risk management in the construction process; prosecuting and defending construction claims including professional negligence, cost overrun, and delay claims; negotiating and drafting construction and design contracts for architects, engineers and owners; and advising clients with respect to design and construction of accessible facilities under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act.

Hillary is a business, consumer products (food & beverage, beauty & wellness, sports & entertainment, fashion & apparel) and technology attorney. Hillary represents sports & entertainment talent, entrepreneurs, start-up businesses and established brands as well as angel, venture capital and private equity investors. She serves as the Chair of the firm’s Business Group, its Sports, Arts & Entertainment, Food & Beverage and Beauty & Wellness practice. Hillary counsels clients on a full range of matters, from day-to-day operational concerns to sophisticated transactions. Like the innovative entrepreneurs, talent and brands she advises, Hillary strives to bring creative yet practical strategies to legal services, assisting clients with brand and asset protection, risk management and dispute resolution. The matters on which Hillary counsels are often cross-border in nature. The clients of her business practice include entrepreneurs, start-up businesses and established brands as well as angel, venture capital and private equity investors. Hillary has a broad transactional background, advising her business clients with a variety of matters, including corporate structure, capital raising and financing, commercial matters, intellectual property matters, mergers and acquisitions and other exit transactions. Hillary’s food & beverage and consumer packaged goods (CPG), beauty & wellness practice focuses on advising clients in the better-for-you, natural, organic, plant-based, vegan, cultivated, cultured meat or cell-based meat, food tech as well as pet food arenas, including brands disrupting their categories and those developing innovative technology. She also serves international brands expanding into the United States, as well as investors and vendors partnering with these brands. She counsels these clients on operational concerns and sophisticated transactions including raising capital, intellectual property development and protection, manufacturing/packing, broker, distribution, supply and other services arrangements as well as on other commercial matters and exit transactions. With the increasing trend of brands and celebrities to partner, Hillary often finds her food & beverage and sports & entertainment practices intersecting and assists brands or their celebrity partners on investment and/or endorsement transactions. The Food & Beverage practice produces a weekly publication focusing on regulatory, market, operations and transactions in the start-up and emerging food & beverage industry called the Emerging Food & Beverage Update.  Hillary’s sports & entertainment clients include new and established athletes, recording artists, actors, television personalities, writers, producers, journalists, broadcasters, photographers, fashion designers, chefs and talent agents and managers. Her counsel to them spans a broad range of services on matters such as brand and intellectual property protection and licensing, services arrangements, rights acquisition and disposition, entrepreneurship and investment and post-career planning. Hillary’s fashion & apparel practice provides a full suite of legal services to designers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers of fashion, jewelry, apparel, footwear and accessory products sold at all price points – from affordable goods to luxury offerings. She regularly advises fashion and apparel clients on launching, investing in, scaling, and protecting their valuable brands in a global marketplace. She provides boutique quality specialized industry knowledge and experience backed by the resources of a full-service mid-sized international law firm. She understands that effective representation involves leveraging a variety of areas of law to accomplish the objectives of the fashion and apparel brands she services. Her experience also includes handling trial and appellate litigation. Hillary has successfully advocated before the Appellate Division of the State of New York. She has participated in numerous alternative dispute resolution forums involving commercial and tort matters. In addition, Hillary serves as an arbitrator in the Small Claims Part of the Civil Court for the City of New York. When not serving her clients, Hillary dedicates time to pro bono service to both non-profit organizations and individuals unable to afford legal services and serves as a volunteer to a variety of public charities. Hillary’s involvement in the legal community includes membership in local bar associations such as the New York County Lawyers’ Association, where she served as chair of its Corporation Law Committee for seven years. She is also a member of the Sports, Entertainment and International Law and Practice Sections of the American, New York State, and New York Women's Bar Associations. Hillary is also a member of the Sports Lawyers Association and the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association.

Related Practices  Mergers & Acquisitions International Corporate Transactions General Corporate Transactions Joint Ventures Startups Financing and Secured Lending Investment Funds and Search Funds Securities Laws Compliance Edward Grenville, the managing partner of the firm, is admitted to practice in California and has over 25 years’ experience representing companies in M&A transactions, financing transactions, emerging company transactions, joint ventures, cross-border transactions, and other business transactions.  He also provides day-to-day advice to companies on corporate governance, contracts, partnerships, vendor relationships, technology transactions, employments matters, and intellectual property matters.  Edward is experienced in representing startups in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, representing these companies from incorporation of the business, through friends and family capital raises, seed rounds, Series A and later rounds, and to eventual exit in an M&A transaction.  Edward’s practice also includes representing lenders and borrowers in a range of secured lending transactions, including revolving and terms loans.  Edward also represents sponsors and investors in hedge fund, private equity fund, and search fund formations, including drafting the principal fund documents, the private placement memorandum, the fund subscription documents, securities laws compliance, and regulatory compliance.  Edward has broad experience in M&A, representing private equity firms and strategic buyers in acquisitions,  sellers, and management teams.  Edward also represents clients in cross-border M&A transactions. Edward combines big law firm experience with the personal approach of a boutique business law firm.  He has been a partner in leading national and international law firms, and was formerly the head of the corporate practice for the West Coast of a global law firm.  He was also previously the General Counsel of a subsidiary of GE Capital, which financed transportation assets, and engaged in global transactions.  He has worked across many industries, including technology, software, fintech, adtech, manufacturing, healthcare, consumer, and transportation sectors. Representative work includes: Represented private equity firm in a series of acquisitions of manufacturing companies Represented manufacturing company in stock sale to private equity firm Represented US private equity firm in acquisition of services company Represented a software technology company (seller) in a stock sale transaction Represented a technology company (acquirer) in an acquisition transaction Represented a public strategic acquirer of a private software technology company Represented a US private company in an asset sale transaction Represented a US services company in a stock acquisition transaction Represented a private equity firm in a sale of a portfolio of loans and equipment leases Represented the management team in a $100 million private equity acquisition transaction Represented a foreign private company in a US stock acquisition transaction Represented numerous Silicon Valley startups in formation, financing, Series A, employment, and intellectual property matters Represented fintech company in restructuring and Series A transaction Represented US and UK company in joint venture for a fintech product Represented sponsors in the formation of a long-short hedge fund Represented sponsors in the formation of real estate private equity funds Represented US bank in numerous revolver and term loan credit transactions Represented UK bank in US asset-based transactions Professional Memberships and Activities State Bar of California – Business Law Section American Bar Association – Business Law Section Director and Chairman of the Board (2021) of the British American Business Council (BABC) – San Francisco Member of the Association for Corporate Growth – San Francisco Director of Tech Bay Area Advocates (TBAA) – San Francisco Bar Admissions California Education B.A., M.A., Modern History, University of Oxford, England JD, University of San Francisco - Law Review - Managing Editor, Maritime Law Journal