Brian G. Leary

Brian G. Leary is a partner in Holland & Knight's Boston office and is the Practice Group Leader for the Boston Region of the Corporate, M&A and Securities Group. He regularly advises several national and global companies on legal and business considerations in deal negotiation, litigation avoidance, customer management, sales channel and supply chain development and management, intellectual property (IP) protection, regulatory strategy and dispute resolution.

He leads multiple deal teams across the firm that, in the past year, have completed more than two dozen transactions for private equity-sponsored clients.

In addition, Mr. Leary has led the defense of high-stakes litigation matters in state and federal courts across the country.

Mr. Leary's experience includes:

• representation of a national consulting firm on misappropriation of trade secrets and contract claims in Texas state court
• representation of a national retailer in multiple consumer class actions in federal court in New Jersey
• representation of a national broadcasting company in a closely watched copyright infringement matter, which was settled while on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• representation of an international equipment manufacturer in a false advertising claim brought in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia
• foiled the planned "October Surprise" of a prominent plaintiff's lawyer who created a national media stir by attempting to invalidate the confidentiality provisions of his client's divorce proceedings in order to influence the 2012 presidential election
• represented a Fortune 125 retailer in various wage and hour collective and class actions
• obtained first known order barring a separately filed state class action from proceeding in the face of a pre-existing collective action
• represented a Fortune 250 warehouse club in obtaining dismissal of a closely watched consumer class action for product pricing violations; successfully advocated for the exemption of warehouse clubs from the state's item pricing law
• negotiated with a proposed casino developer on behalf of the City of Boston what was considered at the time to be the richest community mitigation agreement in the country

Mr. Leary has negotiated settlements with, and collaborated on, the drafting of regulations and legislation with several divisions within the Office of the Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as with numerous state executive branch departments.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Leary was the founder and CEO of Mogall, Inc., one of the early pioneers of the social networking phenomenon, and later Arctius Corp., a developer of knowledge management software. Arctius was acquired by a national consulting firm in 2001.

Prior to founding Mogall, Mr. Leary was a nationally recognized reporter and anchor for Boston's WCVB-TV. In 1997, he received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, considered to be broadcasting's Pulitzer Prize, for his investigative reporting on the Massachusetts Probate Court. Mr. Leary reported extensively from overseas. In 1999, he was awarded the National Society of Professional Journalists' top prize for his reporting from Cuba.

In 2012, Mr. Leary was appointed as chairman of the City of Boston's gaming commission, officially known as the Host Community Advisory Committee, by Mayor Thomas Menino.

Mr. Leary is an active volunteer with several nonprofit organizations in the Boston area. For the past 25 years, he has run an annual charity golf tournament that has raised close to $5 million for homeless services in Boston.