Kuruvilla Olasa

Kuruvilla J. Olasa is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Mr. Olasa’s practice focuses on complex civil litigation. He has experience litigating cases at all stages, including cross-examining witnesses at trial, taking and defending depositions, writing dispositive motions and managing all aspects of discovery. Mr. Olasa also advises clients in the entertainment and media industries on antitrust issues.

Key Representations :

• A private plaintiff in successfully challenging a consummated merger under federal antitrust law. The jury found that the merger violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act and awarded $58m in damages.
• TMZ and Warner Bros. in copyright litigation arising out of TMZ’s posting of a video of a famous actor and recording artist discussing the music of another recording artist.
• A major record company in successfully resolving antitrust claims asserted by a bankrupt streaming music service.
• SoundExchange, on behalf of record companies and recording artists, in a proceeding before the Copyright Royalty Board to set royalty rates for webcasters.
• Bank of America in successfully resolving a $10 billion lawsuit brought by American International Group (AIG) claiming that Bank of America and its Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial units misrepresented the quality of the mortgages placed in securities and sold to investors.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Olasa served as a law clerk to Judge Sandra Ikuta of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and to Judge A. Howard Matz of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Mr. Olasa received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as an articles editor for the California Law Review as well as the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He received his B.S. in computer science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Olasa worked as a software engineer.

Education:

• UC Berkeley School of Law (J.D., 2011) Order of the Coif; articles editor, California Law Review and Berkeley Technology Law Journal
• UC Santa Barbara (B.S., with honors, 2006)

Bar Admissions : California