Education

University of California, Davis King Hall School of Law J.D., with Honors, 1998

California State University at Sacramento B.A., Cum Laude, 1992

Bar Admissions

The State Bar of California

Appellate Law Specialist certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization

Court Admissions

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. District Court, Central District of California

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California

U.S. District Court, Northern District of California

U.S. District Court, Southern District of California

Affiliations

President, Sacramento County Bar Association, Appellate Practice Section, 2009—Present

Member, Sacramento County Bar Association, Appellate Practice Section, 2007—2009

Member, Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court, 2005—2008

Coach and Judge, Center for Youth Citizenship's High School Moot Court Competitions, 2004-2009

Brendan J. Begley

Contact information:

Certified Appellate Law Specialist

bbegley@weintraub.com

T: 916.558.6024

F: 916.446.1611

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Practice Areas

• Appeals and Writs
• Labor and Employment
• Litigation

Brendan spearheads the firm’s Appeals and Writs group and is a member of the firm’s labor and employment and litigation groups. He represents management in workplace law and litigation, and he is an Appellate Law Specialist certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.

In litigation, Brendan has worked on class actions and managed entire cases, including conducting witness interviews, preparing written discovery, arguing related motions, taking and defending scores of depositions, prevailing on numerous anti-SLAPP and dispositive motions, mediating many cases, and second-chairing trials to successful verdicts. At the appellate stage, he has handled both briefing and oral argument before all manner of appellate courts, from the California Court of Appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. At Brendan’s behest, appellate panels have both reversed lower court decisions in various cases (including two that resulted in published opinions), and upheld rulings issued by lower tribunals. The U.S. Supreme Court granted Brendan’s petition for a writ of certiorari that led to the high court hearing and resolving the famous “Pledge of Allegiance” case in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, 540 U.S. 945 (2003).

Brendan has experience in all aspects of civil writs and appeals, from filing the notice of appeal and designating the record, to preparing briefs and making or opposing petitions for further review. As judicial clerk for both state and federal appellate courts, he has reviewed and analyzed literally hundreds of appellate and amicus briefs. As a practitioner, he has handled over thirty different cases as lead appellate counsel.

Prior to joining Weintraub Genshlea Chediak in 2010, Brendan worked for a large nation-wide firm that focused on labor and employment litigation. While there, Brendan worked on wage-and-hour and meal-and-rest-period class actions and collective actions, as well as single-plaintiff and multiple-plaintiff cases alleging wrongful-termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and denial of leave entitlements and/or disability accommodations.

Brendan has delivered numerous public presentations to lawyers, executives, managers, and supervisors on the topics of appellate law and best employment practices. He is admitted to the State Bar of California, and practices before all courts in the State of California. He is also admitted to practice U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prior to law school, Brendan worked as a newspaper reporter for The Sacramento Daily Recorder and as a correspondent to other Daily Journal publications. While in Law School, he worked as a law clerk at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii. After law school, he served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. John M. Gerrard, Associate Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court, and later as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Connie M. Callahan, Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Brendan received his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum luade, from the California State University at Sacramento, and his Juris Doctor degree (with honors) from the University of California Davis, where he was a law-review writer. He also attended the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law where his academic ranking won him admission to the Roger J. Traynor Honor Society. Brendan is a past member of the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court and is currently the President of the Sacramento County Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Section.