Christopher M. Bruno, Associate

Christopher Bruno is a litigation associate in the firm’s Washington D.C. office who practices in a variety of contexts, including patent litigation, health care, and appellate litigation.

Appellate & Critical Motions Litigation

Mr. Bruno has contributed to appellate briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals of the Sixth, Ninth, and Federal Circuits as well as in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Mr. Bruno’s significant matters include:

• Ongoing representation as lead counsel for a habeas petitioner on his appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Bruno personally argued the case before the panel. 
• Service on a team that successfully represented Caraco in United States Supreme Court Case No. 10-844, Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Ltd. v. Novo Nordisk A/S, which posed the question of whether a generic pharmaceutical company can sue a brand manufacturer to correct an overbroad use code submitted to the Food & Drug Administration. The Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9-0 decision finding for Caraco.
• Successful appeal to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia representing a former Bush Administration official seeking to withdraw a guilty plea entered during federal prosecution alleging a failure to cooperate with a congressional investigation. 
• Successful representation, both at trial and on appeal from the class certification order in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, of a large consumer goods store chain in the first tried “suitable seat” case in California, brought as a class action under the California Labor Code Private Attorney General Act.
• Ongoing representation of Monsanto Co. in Monsanto v. DuPont, Case 4:09-cv-00686-ERW (E.D.Mo.). After a three-week trial, Monsanto obtained a significant jury verdict. Mr. Bruno provided motions assistance preceding, during, and after trial.

Patent Litigation

Mr. Bruno has assisted patent case teams in a range of forums: the U.S. International Trade Commission, U.S. District Court, and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Among other things, he has drafted significant discovery motions and assisted in expert discovery, including preparing experts for deposition. In cases involving a generic anti-cancer medication, Mr. Bruno assisted in the execution of simultaneous litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and in the U.S. International Trade Commission. He collaborated in an effort that resulted in the brand company walking away from all pending cases—not just in the United States, but worldwide—by helping to prevent the brand from obtaining key discovery.

Mr. Bruno also currently supports the ongoing representation in a Hatch-Waxman Act case involving Lunesta®.

Health Care

Mr. Bruno has involved himself in a number of health care regulatory matters, many of which require constant monitoring of the fast-paced changing landscape of federal health law. He has participated in advising a variety of health care entities on issues related to potential violations of the federal and state false claims acts, self-referral prohibitions, anti-kickback statutes, and health privacy laws. He has also assisted in counseling clients on proper billing practices under Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and state regimes. In addition to his regulatory work, Mr. Bruno has supported the health care practice’s transactional practice representing banks seeking to invest in health care entities in both equity and debt offerings.

Activities

Mr. Bruno is deeply committed to the pro bono representation of indigent prisoner litigants. At Winston & Strawn, Mr. Bruno significantly contributed to a successful appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on behalf of an inmate seeking medical attention whose claim the lower court had denied on procedural grounds. And as mentioned above, he serves as lead counsel for a prisoner appealing the denial of his writ of habeas corpus to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Before beginning his career with Winston & Strawn, Mr. Bruno served as a clinical fellow at The George Washington University Law School’s Federal, Criminal & Appellate Clinic. He supervised students representing indigent convicted felons on appeal to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and prepared petitions for writs of certiorari in select cases.

He also served as a Specially Assigned Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General, Legal Counsel Division, where he directly advised administrative agencies, reviewed D.C. Council-passed legislation awaiting mayoral signature, and rendered legal opinions on a variety of executive branch actions.

Education