Brian Lee Pelanda

Brian Pelanda is a member of Hines Hampton's insurance and business litigation group.  His practice focuses on litigating complex first-party and third-party insurance coverage disputes in California state and federal courts. He also represents clients in general commercial disputes and transactions.

Brian graduated as valedictorian from Whittier Law School in 2011, where he served as an executive editor of the Whittier Law Review and was a member of the Moot Court Honors Board.  Prior to attending law school, he earned a master’s degree in American history and foreign policy from the University of Akron, and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in American history from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

Pelanda has an array of professional interests ranging from insurance coverage analysis, constitutional law, legal history, intellectual property law, and sports law and marketing.  His publications on these topics include:

• The Anti-Competitive Olympic Games, 54 Orange County Lawyer, No. 7, 32 (July 2012)
• Ambush Marketing:  Dissecting the Discourse, 34 Hastings Communications & Entertainment Law Journal 341 (2012) (3rd Place award in the 2011 ATRIP Annual Essay Competition
• Extinguishing Freedom of Speech at the Olympics, Los Angeles Daily Journal 9 (March 5, 2012)
• What’s a “Bunker”?:  The Curious Case of How Dustin Johnson Lost the 92nd PGA Championship and Why the PGA Must Revise the Now Infamous Local Rule at Whistling Straits, 22 Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal 67 (Fall/Winter 2011)
• Declarations of Cultural Independence: The Nationalistic Imperative Behind the Passage of Early American Copyright Laws, 1783-1787, 58 Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. 431 (2011) (recipient of the 2011 Charles B. Seton Award)
• Copyright’s “Traditional Contours” and “Bedrock Principals”:  Golan’s Potential to Secure First Amendment Protection Over the Public Domain, 31 Whittier L. Rev. 547 (2010) (cited by Brief for Project Petrucci, LLC as Amicus Curiae Supporting Petitioners, & Brief for Justice and Freedom Fund as Amicus Curiae Supporting Petitioners in Golan v. Holder, 132 S. Ct. 873 (2012))