Attorney Brendan M. Kenny

Brendan M. Kenny

Attorney at Law

[email protected]
Direct : 952-746-2139
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Practice Areas

Brendan M. Kenny

Brendan Kenny brought his 16 years of litigation experience in state and federal courts across the country to Hellmuth & Johnson PLLC in January 2022. His experience includes complex mass torts, product liability, class actions, and business and commercial litigation.

For the first 7 years of his legal career, he worked first as outside counsel for businesses and public entities, and then as a Deputy Attorney General at the California Attorney General’s Office.

In 2012, Brendan moved to Minnesota from California. He worked at Blackwell Burke P.A. in Minneapolis from 2012 to 2020, where he handled complex mass torts, product liability, class actions, personal injury, and business and commercial litigation for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. This work included false-advertising and trademark-infringement claims, suits involving popcorn-lung and cooking-spray injuries, one of the Twin Cities’ largest groundwater contamination cases in recent years, and a multi-municipal action regarding flushable wipes.

From 2020 to 2021, he worked as an Assistant Attorney General representing the Minnesota Department of Human Services in federal, state, and administrative matters involving civil rights, health care, ADA, children-and-family services, mental health, and licensing.

Brendan is a sought-after speaker and writer on legal writing, eDiscovery, trial practice, storytelling, and all things persuasion.  Notably, he is co-author of the Minnesota E-Discovery Deskbook (since 2016). In both his case-specific work and as a thought-leader, he has worked to bridge the divide between eDiscovery, lawyers, and businesses by addressing the legal challenges where law and technology intersect across a diverse array of industries.

Brendan is licensed in all Minnesota and California state courts, the U.S. District Court—District of Minnesota, the U.S. District Court—Northern District of California, the U.S. District Court—Eastern District of California, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.


Assistant


Experience

  • Represented various Fortune 100 and 500 businesses on products liability, premises liability, and commercial claims arising in state and federal courts nationwide.
  • Represented Conagra, the largest global producer of cooking spray products, in dozens of state and federal cases alleging that PAM® cooking spray products are defective.
  • On team that secured dismissal of the federal Bair Hugger™ MDL, of one of the 10 largest MDLs in the country.
  • On national coordinating and national trial counsel team for complex toxic tort and mass tort litigation for Fortune 500 clients in claims involving exposures to, among other substances, asbestos, benzene, silica, and diacetyl in state and federal courts nationwide, often in jurisdictions known to be hostile to corporate defendants.
  • Defended Rockline Industries in putative class action alleging that flushable wipes were clogging sewer systems. The district court agreed that Rockline’s claims were not false or misleading, denied injunctive relief, and granted summary judgment in Rockline’s favor.
  • Defended General Mills against class action claims brought by residents claiming vapor intrusion from groundwater contamination from a former General Mills facility. Class certification was reversed by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • Defended ExxonMobil in fuel-dealer franchise suit challenging “zone pricing” as illegal price discrimination.
  • Represented General Mills in trademark lawsuit against Greek yogurt maker Fage over the use of the word “Total.”
  • Defended General Mills against a class action, brought on behalf of California purchasers, alleging that Yo-Plus probiotic yogurt did not promote digestive health as advertised. The class’s claims for damages, including its claim for punitive damages, was de-certified.
  • Managed eDiscovery in nationwide class action, serving as subject-matter expert and contact with vendor, project manager, document reviewers, and machine-learning specialists.  Used continuous-active learning and other state-of-the-art analytical tools to ensure defensible process that also identified and elevated key documents needed to win at the case’s earliest possible stage.

In The News

Thought Leadership

Affiliations:

  • Member, Minnesota State Bar Association
  • Member, St. Joseph Business Guild

Honors & Awards:

  • Super Lawyers® Rising Star (2014–2020)
  • Named 2013 Up & Coming Attorney by Minnesota Lawyer
  • Witkin Award for Academic Excellence in Negotiations, University of California Hastings College of the Law
  • CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Negotiations, University of California Hastings College of the Law

Community:

  • Volunteer, Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers
  • Volunteer, Volunteer Lawyers Network (2019–20)
  • Parishioner, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in West St. Paul

Past Seminars