Rob Bunzel has been a Bartko firm leader for over two decades as an accomplished jury trial lawyer, bench/bar association president, and visionary for the future of this firm. Rob is proud of overseeing the multigenerational growth of Bartko, which has expanded in antitrust, employment and IP under his leadership, and which now will support a next generation of exceptional firm professionals while Rob remains the firm’s general counsel and bridge to the future.

Rob represents both plaintiffs and defendants in civil, criminal, and regulatory matters such as venture finance, business and shareholder disputes, environmental and employment law, class actions, data breach, and professional malpractice. He has also handled matters involving the evolving complex areas of healthcare, privacy and security breaches. Rob’s practice includes representing clients and law firms in professional malpractice claims, ethics issues, bar matters, partner mobility, and fee disputes, as well as in litigation involving the severance of officers, partners, and shareholders across many industries.

His legal work has involved significant international discovery and foreign court appearances, including examinations in Zurich and Lugano, through pioneering requests for civil judicial assistance to Switzerland. He has traveled to Japan, China and Taiwan to obtain evidence for American civil and criminal proceedings and has represented foreign officials in U.S. legal matters, including heads of State of the Philippines, South Korea, and most recently Egypt.

Rob has represented both for profit and nonprofit entities and their directors, officers and shareholders in state and federal litigation and governmental investigations concerning, among other things, antitrust, finance, sports, philanthropic, real estate, technology, and medical issues, including matters involving the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also has achieved recoveries for defrauded parties in Ponzi schemes, including for Trustees in bankruptcy. One of his trials was nationally televised. Rob has testified as an expert witness regarding the standard of care in business litigation and appeared as an expert in the U.K. High Court on the subject of breach of fiduciary duty under California law.

Rob also worked as an Assistant District Attorney for Alameda County, trying numerous cases and learning the skills of jury selection and direct and cross examination, which serve him well to this day.

Outside of work, Rob enjoys spending time with his family, including his wife Mary Mellenthin, children Kate and Cole, and his three grandsons.

Rob also fosters a deep love of English and American literature. He is a contributing editor to the widely circulated quarterly book review The Readers Exchange and a published poet. He was also a board member and past president (2003-2006) of the West Coast’s leading literary quarterly Zyzzyva.

Rob is also an outdoors enthusiast who enjoys swimming, running, biking and fly fishing, as well as photography.  He has coached elite boys’ and girls’ soccer. In addition, he is a continuing and founding board member of Ho’onipa’a No ‘Hana Foundation in Maui, which has dedicated more than 800 acres in the Hana region for environmental protection for the benefit of the Native Hawaiian community.

Education

  • University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings), J.D.
  • Harvard College, B.A. Cum Laude

Professional Affiliations

  • Life Fellow of The American Bar Foundation (2021)
  • Bar Association of San Francisco
  • American Bar Association, Committee on Environmental Litigation
  • San Francisco Lawyers’ Club, American Inn of Court, President (2003-2004)
  • Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Northern California (ABTL), Board of Directors, President (2011)
  • United States Supreme Court Historical Society

Bar Admissions

  • State Bar of California
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
  • United States District Court for the Northern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Southern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Central District of California

Honors & Awards

  • Named as a “Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters for over fifteen years
  • Recognized by “Best Lawyers,” Commercial Litigation (2013-2021)
  • Recognized in the Wall Street Journal as Best Lawyers In Northern California

Representative Cases

In 2022, Rob was co-lead counsel for a significant California healthcare system defendant in a 5-week antitrust class action jury trial in the Northern District of California, at the close of which the nine-member jury returned a unanimous defense verdict, finding that Rob’s client did not tie its hospital services together, and did not force insurance companies to contract with the system on allegedly anticompetitive terms. The certified class of three million California residents and businesses had sought $411 million in damages which would have been trebled under the antitrust laws. The jury never reached the issue of damages, however, instead finding no violation of law.

In 2021, Rob won dismissal of all claims against his client, a former Prime Minister of Egypt, in a high-profile Alien Tort Claim case, by proving up complex diplomatic immunity given the client’s later status as a representative to the IMF in New York. Rob has deep experience in this area, having represented former heads of state of the Philippines and South Korea in such cases.

In 2021, on behalf of a global law firm client, Rob won a $2 million award in arbitration against an insurance company and succeeded in recovering interest and attorney’s fees for his client.

In 2021 and 2022, Rob tried two probate cases on behalf of Trustees of a $2 billion estate, defeating all  claims asserted by a stepdaughter seeking to share in the estate.

In 2015-2019, on behalf of one of San Francisco’s leading antitrust lawyers, Rob successfully caused dismissal of a lawsuit seeking a multimillion-dollar fee split after successfully challenging out-of-state arbitration over the claim and following related litigation in Maryland district court.

In 2019, Rob represented a large Northern California healthcare system in an antitrust case brought by the California AG and a certified class, which settled after Rob over two days selected a San Francisco jury.

In 2017, Rob tried a nonprofit case on behalf of the spouse of the founder of one of California’s largest private foundations related to the direction of the foundation’s mission, resulting in a negotiated settlement.

In July 2014, Rob obtained an extraordinary writ from the State Court of Appeal, dismissing with prejudice a suit with $4 billion exposure in a data breach case in the healthcare industry. Sutter Health v. Superior Court (2014) 227 Cal.App.4th 1546, review denied Oct. 16, 2014.

In 2014, Rob finalized a settlement with six counties and the California District Attorneys Association concluding a 5-year investigation into his client’s biomass (wood to energy) waste streams at three California facilities.

In 2011, Rob secured an $18 million judgment for a major bank’s former investment advisors and in 2015 he obtained a $7.4 million award for financial advisors suing a different bank, both of which were plaintiff-side class actions.

In 2010, Rob won a $2 million plaintiff’s jury verdict in a municipal bond financing case.

Also in 2010, Rob achieved a defense verdict in an 8-week civil antitrust monopolization trial where the plaintiffs asked the jury for $34 million.

In 2008, Rob cross-examined the government’s star witness over several days leading to the successful defense of a U.S. executive in a criminal antitrust trial where the government had obtained seventeen guilty pleas for international price-fixing from other defendants. Defending “The Last Man Standing”: Trench Lessons from the 2008 Criminal Antitrust Trial, United States v. Swanson (June 2008), www.antitrustsource.com.

In 2007, Rob won a $4.85 million verdict in a breach of contract case.

From 2002 to 2007, Rob represented an SEC Receiver and Bankruptcy Trustee in litigation concerning the San Diego PinnFund Ponzi scheme, which resulted in greater than $100 million in recoveries for the injured investors and creditors.

Rob has successfully represented engineers employed by the nation’s largest hazardous waste facility and obtained a landmark ruling regarding recoverable costs in superfund litigation, which ruling was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rob represented the San Francisco 49ers in their 1999-2001 ownership dispute and in other player and team matters.

Publications & Speaking Engagements

Rob has lectured for the Practicing Law Institute and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers on the subject of internal corporate investigations and international discovery. He has presented on panels for the American Bar Association Litigation Committee on environmental litigation.

Practice Areas