18 Feb 2026
Morgan Lewis Strengthens West Coast Litigation Team with Partners Brian Buckley and Melissa Lawton
"Morgan Lewis welcomes partners Brian Buckley and Melissa Lawton to its global litigation practice in Seattle and Los Angeles, bolstering West Coast litigation, consumer class action, and mass arbitration capabilities."
Joining from Fenwick & West, Brian Buckley and Melissa Lawton enhance Morgan Lewis’s litigation capabilities in key West Coast and technology markets. Buckley represents companies at every stage of the litigation lifecycle, advising on litigation strategy, risk management, and dispute resolution. A first‑chair trial lawyer, he has tried cases before judges and juries in federal and state courts nationwide. His litigation experience spans intellectual property disputes, consumer class actions, securities and corporate governance matters, and high‑stakes commercial litigation across a range of industries. Prior to Fenwick & West, Buckley served as Associate General Counsel, Litigation & Regulatory at Amazon, where he oversaw a wide-ranging portfolio of litigation matters, including commercial disputes, privacy and data‑breach claims, class actions, intellectual property litigation, complex arbitrations, and First Amendment media matters, and worked closely with Morgan Lewis litigators.
Melissa Lawton joins Morgan Lewis as a partner in Los Angeles from Fenwick & West. Her practice reflects a broad mix of complex litigation experience, with particular depth in consumer class action and mass arbitration matters in California. She has worked closely on technology‑driven disputes and arbitration‑heavy matters and has held prior quasi in‑house support roles that inform her practical approach to client service.
Armen Nercessian will start at Morgan Lewis on March 2 as of counsel in the firm’s San Francisco office.