Bret R. Vallacher

PARTNER

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Massey & Gail LLP
The Wharf
1000 Maine Ave. SW
Suite 450
Washington, D.C. 20024

Office: 202.652.4511
Direct: 202.780.0351
Fax: 312.379.0467

Bret has represented clients on both sides of the “V” in high-stakes cases and appeals. Bret has defended Fortune 100 companies and the United States Government from civil suits and represented classes of plaintiffs (shareholders, employees, and consumers) in advancing their rights to relief.  Bret’s experience spans a broad spectrum of complicated disputes, including: contract, employment, securities, antitrust, theft of trade secrets, trademark, deceptive trade practices, false advertising, fraud, defamation, election law, and constitutional takings.

Prior to joining Massey & Gail, Bret served as a Trial Attorney for the United States Department of Justice in the Commercial Litigation Branch, where he gained substantial trial and appellate litigation experience representing the United States in a variety of commercial litigation matters, including breach of contract, constitutional takings, employment, bid protests, and international trade. As a Trial Attorney, he first-chaired dozens of cases in federal trial and appellate courts.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Bret clerked for federal trial and appellate judges and was an attorney at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and Jones Day. Bret received his law degree from Stanford Law School. While attending law school, Bret served as a judicial extern to the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals and worked in the Stanford Criminal Defense Clinic, where he successfully obtained dismissals for all of his clients.

  • Stanford Law School, J.D., pro bono distinction, 2013
  • Dartmouth College, B.A., cum laude, 2010

  • The Honorable J. Clifford Wallace, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • The Honorable K. Michael Moore, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

  • District of Columbia
  • Florida
  • New York
  • United States Supreme Court
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • United States Court of Federal Claims
  • United States Court of International Trade

  • Law and Economics, Stanford (2012–2013)
  • Law and Entrepreneurship, Stanford (2012–2013)
  • Federal Budget, Stanford (2013–2013)
  • Arabic Language, Dartmouth (2007–2009)

  • Represented the Official Committee of Talc Claimants in successfully defeating Johnson & Johnson’s “Texas Two-Step” bankruptcy scheme to deprive talcum-product consumers of their jury trial rights.
  • Successfully obtained summary judgment on behalf of the United States regarding issues of collateral estoppel and res judicata.
  • Led five-attorney team in a four-day trial to successfully defend against a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action, prevailing on all counts.
  • In another trial, cross-examined plaintiff’s damages and valuation expert witness, which resulted in favorable judgment that plaintiff failed to prove damages.
  • Successfully defended employment decisions in appeals before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
  • Successfully defended government contract awards in bid protests before the Court of Federal Claims.
  • Successfully defended the United States’s implementation of trade laws against challenges before the Court of International Trade.
  • Represented a major credit card network in connection with antitrust claims arising from the network’s contractual provisions with merchants. In the summer of 2014, Bret was part of a team that defended the network in a seven-week bench trial against antitrust claims by the U.S. Department of Justice relating to those provisions.
  • As part of the team led by David Boies, represented a class of AIG shareholders in a multibillion-dollar constitutional takings class action arising out of the U.S. Government’s takeover of AIG.
  • Co-drafted a Supreme Court amicus brief in Buck v. Davis, 137 S. Ct. 759 (2017) on behalf of former prosecutors, in which we successfully advocated that a capital punishment sentence must be overturned due to racially-tinged “expert” testimony.
  • Represented class of au pairs in an antitrust price-fixing class action.