Bruce Leppla

A Business Leader, Innovator and Defender of Investor Rights

Bruce W. Leppla is a partner in the San Francisco office of Lieff Cabraser, the 2022 New York Law Journal “Class Action Department of the Year,” the 2021 American Lawyer “Boutique Litigation Firm of the Year,” and the Benchmark Litigation “California Plaintiff Firm of the Year.”

Bruce has received numerous honors and awards, including:

Lawdragon named Bruce “one of the nation’s best plaintiff’s lawyers in the area of financial fraud litigation.” As Lawdragon stated, “These 500 lawyers are the best in the nation – many would say the world—at representing plaintiffs in securities and other business litigation, antitrust, whistleblower claims, and increasingly complex financial litigation and data privacy invasions.” Lawdragon also named Bruce as one of its 2024 “Lawdragon 500 global plaintiffs’ lawyers.”

Bruce is a consistently recognized by Best Lawyers (the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession”) as one of the nation’s finest lawyers in its annual “Best Lawyers in America” publication.

Bruce received a 2020 American Antitrust Institute award for his efforts in the historic Enoxaparin antitrust price fixing litigation.

Bruce is the author or co-author of 11 United States and international patents, including the foundational patent “A Method for Storing and Retrieving Digital Data Transmissions,” United States patent No. 5,659,746, issued August 19, 1997. Bruce is a recipient of the fi360 Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation; a member of the Editorial Board of Wall Street Lawyer; and the author of numerous financial and securities litigation articles.

Bruce is an honors graduate of Yale University, magna cum laude, and the U.C. Berkeley Graduate Schools of Law (JD), Journalism (MA) and Economics (MS).

Bruce’s litigation experience includes representing public funds, private institutional investors, national labor organizations (including AFSCME DC 37 in New York City), and consumers in actions against Altria Corp., Purdue Pharma, Petrobras, American International Group, Merck, Celera Corp., Teva, Broadcom, McKesson, America Online, Qwest, and many other cases.

He evaluates, develops and litigates securities fraud and antitrust cases, assists in expert witness matters as they relate to accounting issues, and manages with his partners the settlement of cases that involve corporate finance matters. He is a member of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), and has served as the ABA Litigation Section Chairman on International Corporate Governance Developments.

Bruce is the Chairman of Leppla Capital Management LLC (www.lepplacap.com), a registered investment advisory firm dedicated to supporting national secondary school financial education programs.

Bruce served as the CEO and President of San Francisco-based Redwood Bank from 1984 to 1998, which he sold in 1999 to a national bank at a substantial premium. Bruce has also served as a Director of the California Bankers Association, and as a Guest Lecturer on real estate finance and law at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Bruce has been active in real estate ventures. In 1994, Bruce, with his partner Douglas Stitzel, and through a joint venture with Home Savings of America, acquired, developed and sold The Pacific Center, a 609,000 square foot multi-use real estate development at the corner of Fourth and Market Streets, San Francisco, California.

Bruce speaks frequently in the United States and globally on financial literacy, securities and antitrust litigation developments, IP valuation and related topics. He speaks regularly before the International Foundation of Employee Benefits, the Council of Institutional Investors, the Investment Company Institute, the National Association of Public Pension Plans, and many other organizations.

Bruce is the former Chairman of the non-profit San Francisco Chamber Singers, and currently serves on the Board and as the Chief Investment Officer of the Yale Whiffenpoof Alumni Association.