Judge Larson brings more than 21 years of litigation experience, including serving as Assistant US Attorney in the Criminal Division in Los Angeles where he led 24 criminal trials and received the US Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance. A respected and accomplished jurist, he served as a federal judge for nearly a decade, first as a US Magistrate Judge and then, upon elevation, as a US District Judge in the Central District, where he adjudicated over a thousand federal cases.

Since leaving the federal bench to resume private practice, Judge Larson has quickly emerged as one of California’s go-to litigators in white collar and commercial litigation defense, with a string of dismissals in highly complex criminal and civil matters.

Representative matters include:

• Successfully defending a real estate developer in state criminal and civil cases and a related federal investigation by the FBI and IRS involving corruption allegations concerning a $102 million settlement that ended a four-year legal battle. Successes to date have included demurrers being sustained on five of seven counts in the state criminal indictment. This high-profile case was described by California’s then Attorney General Jerry Brown as the most significant public corruption case in the state’s history.
• Successfully defended a high-profile, national fast food chain in a class action lawsuit of over 17,000 plaintiffs seeking $51 million in damages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). A successful motion for summary judgment resulted in a complete judgment in our client’s favor on all claims.
• One of the lead plaintiff attorneys in a widely watched case among the trademark and copyright law bar involving defendants’ unauthorized licensing of movie poster artwork and promotional advertisements for an iconic animated cartoon character.
• Successfully defended an individual accused of engaging in a conspiracy to launder the proceeds of a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)-related bribery scheme. Successes included obtaining a Rule 29 judgment of acquittal on the singular substantive count of the federal indictment based on insufficient evidence and a Section 2255 motion vacating the one count of conviction based on the Court’s dismissal of the underlying indictment based on government misconduct, predicated in part on a successful motion to suppress intercepted communications.

Judge Larson is the Distinguished Jurist in Residence and a member of the Board of Visitors at the University of La Verne College of Law, where he has taught classes on federal courts, conflicts of law, civil rights, international law, criminal procedure, and professional responsibility since 2002. Judge Larson was appointed by founding Dean Erwin Chemerinsky to serve on the Dean's Advisory Council for the newly chartered law school at the University of California at Irvine. Judge Larson has taught extensively at various law enforcement academies on money laundering, asset forfeiture, and fraud and banking regulations in the United States, including the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, as well as overseas in Hungary, Italy, Malta, Republic of China, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Judge Larson’s professional affiliations include:

• American Bar Association, Life Fellow
• Antitrust Litigation Forum, Steering Committee. Cambridge Forums
• Association of Business Trial Lawyers
• Federal Bar Association, Los Angeles, Board of Directors
• Pacific Council on International Policy
• Volunteer Center of Riverside County, Advisory Board