Franklin Brockway "Brock" Gowdy served as the Managing Partner of the San Francisco office from 2003 to 2011. Mr. Gowdy has also served as a member of the firm's Advisory Board since 2003. As a prominent member of Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice Group, he is a trial lawyer specializing in complex litigation, especially securities, RICO, antitrust, copyright, trade secrets, patent, products liability, environmental and defense of professional malpractice cases. Mr. Gowdy has tried more than 100 cases since 1971 around the United States for Fortune 100 clients and prominent individuals in "mission critical" and "bet the company" type matters. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Mr. Gowdy has litigated class action cases since 1974, principally in antitrust and securities matters in courts all around the country. He has litigated and tried numerous cases around the country during the past 43 years. In the past 20 years, Mr. Gowdy has litigated at least 23 cases involving the telecommunications industry. During that time, he tried five of those cases, in Texas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and California. Mr. Gowdy has also litigated and tried cases for plaintiffs and defendants since the late 1970s for clients such as Amfac Inc. and subsidiaries, Bechtel, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Mobay Chemical Corporation, Sears, Whirlpool, Pitney Bowes, Inc. and others.
Mr. Gowdy has a comprehensive knowledge of the complex issues and trends impacting the securities and financial services industries, as demonstrated by his successful representation of Coopers & Lybrands for over 20 years. His securities and antitrust litigation practice includes numerous representations in class-action and multi-district litigation; SEC, FTC, and USDJ inquiries and investigations; state regulatory investigations; and criminal Grand Juries and criminal cases.
Mr. Gowdy also has a record of retail industry experience. For over a decade, he handled virtually all litigation matters for Amfac, Inc. and its extensive retail operations. He also consulted with Apple in connection with their decision to commence retail operations in recent years.
In 2004, Mr. Gowdy was named "Attorney of the Year" by California Lawyer magazine in the Law Practice Management category. He was chosen for the award for his leadership and vision in bringing 250 partners, associates and staff to Morgan Lewis and opening three new offices in California. Winners of this prestigious award are selected based on their impact on the California legal community. This was Mr. Gowdy's second consecutive "Attorney of the Year" award. He was additionally honored in 2003 for civil litigation, in connection with his successful representation of Leigh Steinberg, one of the most well-known professional sports agents in the U.S., in a breach of contract and unfair competition case.
Mr. Gowdy is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Central Districts of California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Mr. Gowdy's memberships include: Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Securities Litigation and Antitrust Sections of the American Bar Association. He is also a member of the California and San Francisco Bar Associations, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society.
