ROBERT C. O’Brien is the partner-in-charge of the Los Angeles office of Arent Fox, a law and lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C. with offices in New York and Los Angeles.  
O’Brien’s practice focuses on commercial litigation and domestic and international arbitration, including intellectual property, entertainment, complex business disputes and election law matters for Fortune 500 corporations, privately held companies and individuals. He also has significant private practice and government experience in international legal affairs.
O’Brien has defended, in motion practice and through jury trial, corporate clients in breach of contract, fraud, breach of implied contract, right of publicity, copyright, trademark and employment cases. He has also obtained preliminary injunctions and significant settlements in high-profile infringement cases on behalf of intellectual property rights holders.
O’Brien has represented both domestic and foreign-based companies in complex transnational litigation and arbitration cases involving breaches of joint-venture agreements, construction and oil and gas matters, among other areas. He has obtained multi-million dollar settlements in such cases.
O’Brien currently serves as co-chairman of the State Department’s Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan. In July 2008, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve a three-year term on the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, which advises the government on the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act.
O’Brien served as a major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve. In 1990, he was a judicial extern-clerk to the Honorable J.P. Vukasin, Jr. in the Northern District of California.
O’Brien earned a BA, cum laude, from UCLA, and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law.

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