High-Profile Business and Consumer Financial Litigator Brian Melendez Joins Barnes & Thornburg

MINNEAPOLIS – Barnes & Thornburg LLP has added Brian Melendez, an accomplished trial and appellate attorney, as a partner in the Litigation Department in Minneapolis.

Melendez focuses on consumer-credit litigation, business torts, nationwide class actions and contractual disputes. He represents Fortune 100 companies and has litigated more than 300 cases under federal and state consumer-protection statutes. Melendez has defended more than a dozen putative nationwide class actions involving federal consumer-protection statutes, including one of the earliest class-action claims under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in 2000.Furthermore, he has extensive experience defending companies in connection to the Consumer Credit Protection Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair & Accurate Credit Transactions Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Minnesota Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act.

“Brian has more than two decades of experience managing complex commercial litigation and consumer protection matters,” said Connie Lahn, managing partner of Barnes & Thornburg’s Minneapolis office. “He’s highly regarded in business and legal circles in the Twin Cities and is a splendid addition to our team.”

Melendez is an active member of several professional and community organizations, having been elected president or chaired many, including the Minnesota State Bar Association, the Hennepin County Bar Association, the ABA Young Lawyers Division, the Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Association, and the ABA Standing Committee on Constitution & Bylaws. He also served as a board or committee member of the Minneapolis Charter Commission, Central Minnesota Legal Services, and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, among others.

Melendez received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, his M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and his A.B. from Harvard University. He is admitted to practice in Minnesota, Florida and before the U.S. Supreme Court. He also is admitted to practice before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia and for the Federal, First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits; and the U.S. District Courts for the District of Colorado, District of Minnesota, Middle District of Florida, Southern District of Florida, Eastern District of Wisconsin and the Western District of Wisconsin.

Melendez joins from Dykema, where he served as the office managing member in Minneapolis.

With more than 600 attorneys and other legal professionals, Barnes & Thornburg is one of the largest law firms in the country. The firm serves clients worldwide from 13 offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Delaware, Indiana, Los Angeles, Michigan, Minneapolis, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit us online at www.btlaw.com or on Twitter @BTLawNews.