Facing criminal charges and massive civil liability in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Transocean might have turned to a legal leviathan. Instead, the beleaguered company tapped a relative pipsqueak in Munger Tolles & Olson, a firm with just two offices and 185 lawyers.
Brad Brian, Michael Doyen and Luis Li negotiated with the DOJ for almost two years, reaching a $1.4 billion settlement just weeks before the first phase of trial in the multidistrict litigation was set to begin. The payment resolved all of the government’s claims against Transocean.
