NICHOLAS J. BRECHBILL

PARTNER

Nick is committed to helping clients combat unfair reputational attacks through pre-publication advocacy, efforts to secure retractions and corrections, and if necessary, defamation litigation.  His clients include CEOs, high net worth individuals, and Fortune 500 companies.  Nick has substantial experience litigating in state and federal courts throughout the country at the trial and appellate levels, as well as in guiding clients through internal and government investigations.  For example, Nick played a crucial role in Dominion Voting System’s litigation against Fox News, which resulted in a $787.5 million settlement—the largest publicly known defamation settlement against a media company.  He was also an integral member of a trial team that secured a FINRA-record $52.125 million defamation judgment on behalf of his client following a 25-day arbitration.  And Nick has obtained numerous corrections and retractions from major media outlets on behalf of his clients.

Prior to joining Clare Locke, Nick was an associate in the D.C. office of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.  At Sullivan & Cromwell, Nick represented a wide array of clients including financial institutions, automotive manufacturers, and energy companies.  As one example, Nick defended an energy company in appellate proceedings following dismissal of a putative class action alleging antitrust and Commodity Exchange Act claims relating to the purported overseas manipulation of Brent Crude Oil.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed dismissal of all claims, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied the plaintiffs’ petition for a writ of certiorari.  Nick also represented one of the world’s largest auto manufacturers in internal and government investigations.

Nick graduated magna cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2017.  Prior to and while pursuing his law degree, Nick served as a senior intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center, where he authored key assessments for the President’s Daily Brief, served as the daily intelligence briefer for one of President Obama’s top counterterrorism advisors, and received a number of honors.  Before that, Nick served as an intelligence analyst at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan supporting the FBI’s counterterrorism mission during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Nick was selected by the National Law Journal as a Rising Star of the Plaintiffs’ Bar for 2024.

ADMISSIONS

• District of Columbia
• New York
• Commonwealth of Virginia
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York